Interview with Alex Heaton
March 17, 2012 in Painting
You draw on a wide range of mediums including paint, collage and scale models – how do you decide which to use?
I decide in an organic way, for instance a piece like Alpine Start may dictate that its painted, so as to create a feeling of gassy nebulous clouds, the fluid nature of oils suits this best. However to render the details like linear constellations the gold leaf seemed a natural choice for this due to the fact that gold itself can only be formed in the heart of a dying star.
With the prints because they are obliquely collaged and deal more with graphic lines, screen-printing work best, as it’s a medium of hard edges and sharp lines. To paint those collages, it seemed to me would deaden the impact of the stark visuals I was sourcing.
The models were at first a starting point for the paintings; I was using them to map out what I wanted to paint instead of using a sketchbook. Eventually they became art pieces in their own way and not just supporting material. The Paintings were not about movement as such, more like somber still reflections on landscape and natural forms. So I feel each medium is essential in a way that gives insight towards the others.
