Conjuring Up Memories

Artizan are pleased to be welcoming back to the gallery a solo show of new works by Brixham based artist, Ian Watson, as we celebrate the ‘World in Landscape' throughout July

‘During lockdown, I set out to create paintings of favourite places in Spain, Italy and Greece I didn’t expect to visit ever again. I rifled through old sketchbooks, selecting and combining drawings, developing compositions, essaying to conjure memories.

It’s always been my objective to avoid slick or photographically inclined work, and so I aimed to make paintings that didn’t have the glossiness of tourist industry images, but which mimicked the blemished, tangible surfaces of the real world. Bearing this in mind, for this series, I employed multiple viewpoints, the bleached-out colours of hot locations, and relentlessly layered impastos, resulting in works which couldn’t help but show the influence of artists I admire: Bomberg, Auerbach, Balthus.’

Ian will be hosted in the entirety of our rear gallery space and in the front gallery we shall be welcoming artists Bea Brookes and Danielle Neill, also providing their personal interpretations of our World in Landscape.