For the return of our In The Studio series, we popped in to David Wightman's studio! David gave us a sneak peek into what he's currently working on, insight into his creative process, spanning drawing, painting, and print, and told us all about the inspirations behind the vivid colours and tactile textures of his work!

 

 

 

 

How do your pieces begin?

Every piece starts from a line drawing, and the drawings could become paintings or prints or sometimes both.

 

 

Are the landscapes you create observed or fictional?

They’re all imaginary landscapes; my very early pieces were real places (...) and I just didn’t like being bound by them. I found myself making mountains bigger, introducing certain elements, taking away certain elements, and it just seemed better to start from nothing. So they have an origin of realness, and I want them to be believable, I want people to look at them and wonder if they are real places, if they do exist, if they're amalgams or hybrids in some way, but they’re all imaginary landscapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you choose your colours?

Well, another reason I wanted to move away from realistic landscapes was (...) I really missed the vibrant colours and the freedom I had with my abstract work. I thought I could bring the texture and the colour from my abstract work into my landscapes. So suddenly, lakes became magenta, and I started mixing up dark skies, pink skies; I just really wanted to be free with colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you mix your paints yourself?

I do mix them all myself; each of the codes are all the pigment names, and how I've mixed them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why did you start making prints?

I had so many people loving my work, wanting to buy it, and so a friend of mine said “well you should try and make prints." I didn’t want to make prints that were reproductions of the work, so I revisited my drawings. I think moving to printing has made me further appreciate all the variations and the colour ways that are possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wallpaper choices in your paintings are really interesting, the different textures for the different terrains.

I don’t think I’d be making work like this now if I hadn’t had years of making geometric abstract paintings, with no reference to the real world.  The textures are a big, big part of what I do. They’re very kind of scrappy in the process, they look perfect when finished, but in the process I’ll get through hundreds of scalpel blades. My process is collage, and marquetry, and sketching, and tracing, and pasting, and cutting, so half the process is that, the other half is painting.

David is currently getting ready for his exhibition with Kristjana Williams opening this September 19th, at Inspiré x Kristjana S Williams gallery in Narbonne, France!

For David's available collection of work, please visit his artist page here.

 

David Wightman at Inspiré X Kristjana S Williams

4 Rue Benjamin Cremieux, Narbonne, 11100
France

Opening reception:
Thursday 19 September 2024 | 6pm - 8pm

 

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