- Jun 25, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 14, 2025
Background: NAC has run a drop-in life-drawing session on Monday evenings since 2018. It’s proved very popular, with many artists and models becoming our ‘regulars’; some are taking part in this, our occasional interview feature.
Q: We love your self-portrait Matt! Tell us more about yourself and your interest in art.
A: Though I loved art at school it was a traditional academic institution and at 15 I had to choose between arts and sciences. I chose the science path and did do well at it; but the creative streak was obviously there as I almost studied architecture at university until a work experience week convinced me it was not a viable career path in rural Kent - so I became an engineer for 32 mostly enjoyable years.
Self portrait
As soon as I finished university and got a job I did start art evening classes and I have never stopped since then. Juggling a busy work and family life until 2018 I spent my limited creative time painting in watercolours (mostly landscapes and portraits), acrylics (collage and portraits), life study (charcoal and graphite) and, latterly, wood block engraving/printing. Given the opportunity to leave work with voluntary redundancy I have taken the plunge to be an artist and increase my creative output.
Q: Do you focus on particular themes/materials when producing your artwork? What are your inspirations?
A: The clean lines and simplified compositions of wood engravings and linocut resonate with me greatly - you are forced to summarise and suggest shapes and textures and there is an excitement knowing one slipped tool or hasty stroke can destroy the work completely. Life drawing helps to sharpen your sketching accuracy and pare down the mark making to a minimum.
My watercolours and portraits are my guilty pleasure s- one-off flights of colourful fancy that eat up the time and let me zone out. I limit myself to special subjects, meaningful to me, stretching my technique or hedonistically exploring gorgeous textures and colours.
Q: What have you taken inspiration from when producing your artwork?
A: My portraits are inspired by Richard Burlet: he is considered an abstract-figurative artist, with strong Viennese influence of the late 1800s (Gustav Klimt etc). Burlet's paintings are richly coloured compositions in collage and oil and each displays a brilliant pastiche of ornamental detail and strong colours. Burlet enjoyed manipulating the interplay of figure and background, flatness and depth, object and image and these aspects in turn work for me, allowing me to create individual and striking images.
Through collage I integrate poignant artefacts into the fabric of the picture to add additional levels of emotional attachment - wedding invitations, bars of favourite music or spent airline tickets for a special holiday etc. These are swallowed into the composition unless the viewer starts to study in depth.
My main output currently is quirky linocut and wood engravings, humorous topics reduced down to a graphical impression.
Checked shirt [linocut]
Q: Moving on to Northern Arts Club, how long have you been a part of NAC and why did you join?
A: Access to models, and art classes generally, in the North East of Scotland is so limited after spending most of my life in big cities like Manchester or Rotterdam. The reliable NAC evening slot on a pay-as-you-go basis is a great resource. The range of models is amongst the best I’ve come across too. The fellow artists’ styles and encouragement is nice for someone finding their way in life drawing as it is daunting to start. I’ve been coming to NAC for 4 years now, starting with guided classes and moving onto the unguided sessions.
Q: The Covid Pandemic has curtailed Club activities, including the life-drawing sessions. Have you tried online sessions? Or other methods of maintaining your skills?
A: I have 3 parallel zoom art sessions running weekly where like-minded artists either work on their own pieces in company or do challenges in suggested topics. Life drawing has stopped for me now, it doesn’t suit virtual sessions. The camaraderie and socialising helps maintain my commitment and continue doing art, I need organising not to be lazy.
Q: And generally, did you find more time to focus on your artwork during lockdown?
A: Less. The absence of upcoming exhibitions, and the need to furnish new work for them, has meant I’ve concentrated on smaller, fun and social subjects.
Lips [linocut]
Q: Have you shared any of your work with Club members? If so, how have you done this?
A: Not much actively. I’ve not been interested in social media in the past and probably missed a lot of engagements by NAC in ignorance – though I have just submitted some work to the Club sites. I have started to value social media much more recently and appreciate its power to reach and inform. I will try to move on from my 1:1, exhibition-led selling approach as it falls flat in lock
Q: Has creating your artwork acted as a coping mechanism during the pandemic?
A: Totally. I’ve quite enjoyed the introspectiveness and time available to make art the pandemic has unexpectedly provided. I have also found a shocking number of people have common interests and are more willing to interact socially through art than I would have believed before.
- Jun 1, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 14, 2025
Background: NAC has run a drop-in life-drawing session on Monday evenings since 2018. It’s proved very popular, with many artists and models becoming our ‘regulars’; some are taking part in this, our occasional interview feature.
Q: A wonderful self-portrait in your typical and most recognisable style Gerrard. Although you are not a fulltime artist, your artwork is very well-known in the community and beyond. Tell us more about yourself and your interest in art.
A: I suspect that like many folk, I find pleasure both in creating and experiencing the creativity of others. I grew up with the art of my mother and others distributed around our house and so have always seen art as something that we can all choose to do. I am not formally trained but learn from every artist that I discover and come to respect, for example most recently Mela Muter.
Artist at Garage 10
Q: Do you focus on particular themes/materials when producing your artwork?
A: I am primarily a painter working in oils and my work is mainly figurative and only slightly realistic. I need the absorption of painting and I'm fascinated by the composition process. I re-draw and sketch my ideas many times over, allowing for a semi-conscious churn of elements, until what I will be painting, reveals itself and becomes clear. This exploration helps me to invest in the quality of what I then go on to paint.
The Shell Hunters
Q: What have you taken inspiration from when producing your artwork?
A: I can become fascinated by the most trivial image or idea from anywhere, but although these things may trigger a painting, they often do not end up appearing in the final work, as they tend to get changed beyond any recognition as I explore the composition.
Existentialists
Q: Moving on to Northern Arts Club, how long have you been a part of NAC and why did you join?
A: I have been a member of NAC for over 5 years, although I’m not sure exactly when. I originally joined NAC as a member of Aberdeen Artists Society Council, to provide liaison and help foster ways for the two organisations to collaborate in areas of mutual interest; and so have been involved in booking rooms for AAS AGM meetings and attending NAC AGMs etc. More recently for a few years prior to lock-down, I had been able to play an active role in helping to run one of the Clubs very popular and successful life-drawing groups.
Q: Have you shared any of your work with Club members? If so, how have you done this?
A: I haven’t shared my work much beyond Aberdeen Artists Society exhibitions and NEOS, although one of my recent painting was selected for the RSA annual exhibition which is open on-line now. I also try to use one of my works each year, to create what is generally regarded as an inappropriate Christmas Card, and post some of these around locally over Christmas.
Q: The Covid Pandemic has curtailed Club activities, including the life-drawing sessions. Have you tried online sessions? Or other methods of maintaining your skills?
A: I’ve found that I haven’t been able to derive the same pleasure from online life-drawing sessions, perhaps because the subjects are already 2-dimensional; but also maybe because “it just wasn’t the same”. Generally I have not endeavoured to do much from-life depiction drawing and I miss the discipline and the social interaction of the life-drawing sessions.
Q: And did you find more time to focus on your artwork during lockdown?
A: I work full-time and this has continued much the same through lock-down and working from home has been a very interesting experience. However, as before, I am very lucky to have a studio space available to me and so I have also been able to continue to create work in my spare time and this has included some preparative sketching etc. I participate in the NEOS open studios exhibitions every September and was able to open my studio again last year; although attendance was down on previous years, it seemed good to be able to show that art was still happening in difficult times.
Q: And finally, has creating your artwork acted as a coping mechanism during the pandemic?
A: Art in general helps me feel better about myself and my fellow human beings and so it has always been a coping mechanism for me, being able to create work during the pandemic.
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- Apr 22, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: May 5, 2021
Here are three stunning flower paintings in watercolour by James Maitland.
