July Spotlight - Gregg Watts

I’ll Get You My Pretty

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​Within a theater of canvas, whose grain is covered with floral bouquets of pastel hues, primary colors, and often the iconic faces of Hollywood. Delivered by a brush which bounces about, smudging it's imagery onto the canvas, like a projector illuminating the blank, white expanse of a movie screen. It is within said theater that this month’s artist keeps the viewer enraptured in a cinema of acrylic paint.
What you are about to see is the epitome of modern British pop-art, and then some. The familiar figures of the screen (both movie and television), find strange counterparts among the portraits of everyday people, as well as his strangely expressive portraits of animals; some of which are straight forward representations, while others lean towards a much more surreal approach. Whatever the subject matter may be, ultimately this artist is much more interested in the technical aspects of painting and approaches the problems that come with portraiture in the same calculating manner as an enigmatologist would a puzzle.
Behind this artist’s work there looms no great philosophic statement or contemplation thereof, no ideological set or desire for such a set. This, however, is not to the detriment of the art. For in the absence of any intellectualization regarding his subjects, we find pictures which communicate a sheer exuberance at the act of painting, the joy of the process itself. An artist forever goading himself to take the brush in his hand time and again with nothing more than the promise of attaining a further mastery of his craft. We are proud to present to you our July Spotlight artist: Gregg Watts.

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The Grady Sisters

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Gregg Watts
​My name is Gregg Watts, I am an Acrylic artist based in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England.
 
I was obsessed with drawing as a kid, always sat in front of the TV with a sketch book and some pencils, copying from my favorite comics and inventing some of my own.
 
In my teenage years however, art took a bit of a backseat as a new obsession for the guitar and rock music took over my life.
 
Cut to twenty five years later and my love of art resurfaced with a vengeance when I discovered digital painting while doing a web design course. I was amazed at what I could create and was really inspired by some fantastic digital artists. Soon I began to get an itch to create something more physical, to have an end product I could hold rather than being stored on a computer. I loved the thought of oil painting, but I didn’t have the patience for the drying times, so Acrylic seemed like the next best medium for me.
 
I love to paint. That’s it. I’m not trying to make a statement, my pieces don’t contain any subliminal messages, I am not trying to make any political or social references. I paint subjects that appeal to me and inspire me, and I endeavor to paint them as well as I can. The drive to improve my painting is my motivation and my passion.
 
The challenge of portraiture is my main interest, animals or humans. The start of a painting can be quite frustrating for me as I try to find the likeness of the subject. Once I have the correct proportions in place I can relax and start to have fun. I like to add energy to my paintings, jarring the background with the foreground, adding contrasting colours, all to create an illusion of movement.  It’s an instinctive and emotional process, sometimes it’s traumatic, but the end result is worth it and keeps me hungry to create the next painting.
 
….And the next painting is always going to be the best one.
 

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See More From Gregg Watts at:
 
Website :www.gwstudioart.com
Facebook : www.facebook.com/ArtbyGregg
Instagram : @gwstudioart