As featured in Unfolded Magazine Issue 11
"I wanted to start with a really simple concept. Bringing it back
to a celebration of paint" says Chris Moon, an artist who we caught
up with at his second solo show, 'Reverie' at Londonnewcastle
gallery in October. Moon is a self-taught artist and he tells us he
"wasn't surrounded by art as a kid. It was the only thing I
knew. I used to draw images from magazines, life drawing
and
it came naturally. From that process I
started using paint and went on from there." There was a point in
his journey where he didn't show any work for several years and
destroyed a lot of work. "I guess I was trying to find my own style
and I found it
through that process. I never lost
the belief and that was important to keep me going." Now though, he
tells us he can't live without painting, it is a
"conversation
I have with he canvas", he says and
in some ways the paint is a companion. A self-confessed
daydreamer, the paintings "started as a pluck", he tells us, "some
of which have a story to tell. It is more about the paint than the
emotion for me." He goes on to tell us more about his thoughts
behind his work, likening it to "opening up a box of your old
photos. I take some out. I have traditionally shied away from
painting from photographs, but what I realise now and through this
process is that you start with a digital image, recreate that in
paint and then it becomes mine. I own that image and from there it
is a battle between the head and the hand, me and the
canvas."
Some of the imagery is haunting whilst others are bursting with
colour and life. The series entitled 'fight or flight' suggests a
call to battle, warding of a foe or guarding an inner emotion,
whilst some of the packed figurative scenes, with their
lighter colours and tones suggest a calmness, serenity and peace of
mind. 'Lost in a Space' shows sinewy figures in a vast
landscape, in one, a forlorn figure is depicted at the bottom of a
rainbow, hunched and bereft of colour, in others, depicted at the
precipice of a building, looking to a horizon or even the ground
perhaps. There are personal and emotionally charged paintings, such
as that of his mother, using a washed-out 70s photo of her just her
sitting in a field which he says he used to "reinvent the idea of
my mother"
Much has been said of his painting style and Moon tells us he
"draws inspiration from many artists, but really I pick a section
of work, as if you select a song from an album. There's a nod to
Hockney, Bacon and Michael Andrews. There is a crossing of
paths. With any journey you are going to meet a lot of people
on the way and some will inspire, some you'll forget."
The paintings in 'Reverie' show a nostalgia for memories,
encounters and places from the painters past or they could be of
images that may surface in a dream or of everyday stimuli.
The sources, he tells us are varied "from old travel photos
to sunbathers on London fields to brief moments to imaginary alien
environments." He invites us to view that dream or thought, with
the brushstrokes giving just enough detail for us to fill in the
canvas with our own mental imagery and imagine what the painter may
be viewing. Moon tells us that he is depicting a new story with the
paint laid down, a reinvention of images. It is that invention we
are seeing and in doing so, "making the ordinary,
extraordinary".
Interview and Portraits: Nardip Singh
Painting images supplied by Lisa Baker Copyright © Chris
Moon