1. 10
We last saw you in the magazine exhibit-
ing at the Chiddingly Festival last summer.
Tell us about developing your work since then.
My work develops either by a process
of refinement and/or a total reworking in
an 'all or nothing' approach. A painting is
only as good as its weakest part, and this
problem has to be addressed. Even on a 3
or 4 metre canvas there can be tiny areas
of colour that do not work.
A wholesale re-working is more
problematic. Success is rare but not
unknown. Failure can involve a lingering
death, but this can be circumvented by the
barbecue process. That never fails.
The exhibition at the Birley Centre is
a retrospective of your last ten years as
a painter. Has ‘that which inspires you’
changed at all during that time?
My view of painting has not changed,
but it has taken rather longer to realise
than I would have liked. I am attempting
to create self-contained worlds which may
or may not have anything to do with this
one. One hopes they give pleasure and can
sustain repeated viewing.
The proposition is simple: produce
something that is intellectually irrefutable
but looks like it has been painted in 5 min-
utes at White Heat... Or... it comes down
to four little words: "Wow, look at that".
You listen to music while you paint. How
does that help with your creativity and which
composers do you prefer?
The power of music 'that to which all
art aspires' is potent indeed. A childhood
memory, I find it indispensable. By music
I mean the so called 'classical tradition'
which, for me at least, stretches from
Gregorian chant through to my fellow
Tasmanian composer Peter Sculthorpe,
who died last year. If I could produce work
that has the same effect on other people as
the music of Anton Bruckner has on me, that would be
wondrous indeed.
I sometimes give my paintings musical titles.
You are often described as a ‘colourist’. Does this label bother you at
all? Do you find it somewhat limiting?
Compared to your homeland of Tasmania with its vibrant
colours, do you find Sussex less appealing as an artist?
The term 'colourist' is something to which I have always
aspired. It is a magical world and certainly not limiting in that it
accommodates other things. There is no doubt that the vibrancy
of light and colour, and the space of the southern hemisphere
will live with me forever.
Sussex is certainly different and more subtle, but as I am not a
landscape painter, I find both equally enjoyable.
How do you decide on a title for a piece of work? Is it
pre-determined or does it evolve with the painting?
I have no idea of what the title of a painting will be when I start
work. This eventually emerges from a dialogue with the painting,
not the least of which is the recognition of the importance of
'Accident' and how it can be a godsend.
So it goes. Sometimes the painting suggests developments,
sometimes me. When things go well, and we sing from the same
hymn sheet, peace and light prevails. If the painting sulks, I can
always threaten the barbecue card.
DAVID ARMITAGE
A DECADE OF COLOUR
Tasmanian-born, Sussex-based
painter David Armitage celebrates the
culmination of a decade of work with
an exhibition at Eastbourne's Birley
Centre 28th March – 26th April.
We interrupted his recent antipodean
travels with a barrage of questions...
Aurora
Gethsemane
ingénu/e magazine - south downs and high weald : issue 8 1110 ingénu/e magazine - south downs and high weald : issue 8
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