Lee Herring's memory based landscapes are captured from travelling around the country by foot, car and train. Collecting scraps of information before the scene is passed and forgotten. Each piece is painted solely from memory to create images that are abstracted and expressional more than representational.
Spray paints, varnishes, thickeners and acrylics are spread around the surface creating sweeping skies. Bold layers are scraped back and balanced against the dramatic use of paint revealing hidden layers of colour. The basic composition evolves spontaneously through heavy and joyful mark-making. Scrapers and trowels are used to create delightfully gestural and organic shapes. A mixture of instinctive, deliberate and accidental marks merges the layers together. Areas are energetically reworked or erased until the image reaches the desired beauty.
1) Which art movement do you consider most influential on your practice?
Tricky, but I'd go with Abstract Expressionism, the mark making, especially in the backgrounds of my work is pretty loose and free.
2) Where do you go and when to make your best art?
I've been working in a home studio for years, I love being able to paint whenever I like and no commute to work is pretty good :-) I've literally just constructed a garden studio, so will be moving in next month, it's bigger and brighter and hopefully better!
3) How do you describe your 'creative process'?
Probably spontaneous or instinctive?! Most of the time I don't know what I'm trying to achieve, I just start putting a few colours on and see where it leads.
4) Which artist, living or deceased, is the greatest inspiration to you?
Jackson Pollock was probably my first inspiration but I tend just to keep an eye out on current painters now... Connor Harrington is very cool, loads of drips, smudges, abstract sections that blur into realism.
5) If you weren't an artist, what would you do?
Painter and Decorator I think, find it pretty therapeutic and oddly satisfying, getting the lines straight!
6) What do you listen to for inspiration?
I generally just put on the radio, I prefer it to an album, the eclectic, random mix so could be any genre!
7) If you could own one artwork, and money was no object, which piece would you acquire?
I LOVE Slump/Fear (orange/black) by Alexis Harding, it's like a frozen time-lapse painting! it's pretty big though, but I suppose if money was no object I'd buy a bigger house to put it in too :-)
8) If your dream museum or collection owner came calling, which would it be?
No idea...anyone who buys my artwork I'm very grateful of! I always think they could have done anything with their money, a summer holiday, new bathroom maybe, but they chose to buy a painting by me, it's a really nice thought!
9) What is your key piece of advice for artists embarking on a fine art or creative degree today?
Stick at it, find your style and don't expect overnight success.
10) What is your favourite book of all time (fiction or non-fiction)?
hmmm... No fave book really, I don't read a whole lot but recently Paul Gascoigne's Biography, he's got a few decent stories!
11) If you could hang or place your artwork in one non-traditional art setting, where would that be?
I'd really like to do a large-scale painting, something outdoors, inner city! It'd be cool to be right amongst the public to see reactions and how it contrasts buildings and changes throughout the seasons.
12) What was the biggest lesson your university course or time studying taught you?
Most probably just confidence in what you do, that's a big part. I didn't learn any (or many) technical processes, it's more just exploring ideas really.
13) And finally, if we were to fast forward 10 years, where would we find you?
I'll be nearly 40 so probably bald, a little overweight but hopefully still in my studio!!
