ART

BRUCE WILLIAMS

Bruce Williams paints in much the same way as a sculptor might work with clay. The paint is 3D – shaped on the canvas in an immediate and visceral way, conveying a sense of urgency and emotional response to the subject. It’s almost as if he wants to try and capture the living energy of the subject in some way – be it a portrait, landscape or still life. This energy leaps out at you from the canvas – a combination of loose expressive brush strokes and vivid use of colour.

Williams came to his practice via the circuitous route of a stint in the army, then running a driving school - before the drive to paint took over! Although he had always been interested in art, Williams only took up painting seriously in his thirties, having done a course at Hastings College. Once at college, the desire to paint took over and he’s never looked back.

This time at college appears to have been a bit of an epiphany as he was introduced to the idea of not only turning painting into a career but also discovering other artists who were to be a huge inspiration for him.  It was here, for instance, that he was introduced to British artist David Bomberg’s work – an artist greatly informed by Cubism and Futurism in its structural abstraction - clearly an inspiration. One can see how he might have impressed on Williams’ work a desire to use paint in a more ‘sculptural’ way on canvas.

Williams says that Masters such as Rembrandt and Matisse have also been an inspiration, as well as the likes of Francis Bacon, who was the subject of Williams’ thesis at University. Williams feels Bacon’s work is quite “violent” and thinks that some might perceive that in his work. Looking at his body of work, however, it strikes me that it’s not so much aggressive or violent, but much more about emotion and passion.

I see much more of a connection with Frank Auerbach, whose work is characterized by a rough impasto technique. Williams’ painting style echoes this expressionistic method – suggesting outlines and forms with minimal broad brushstrokes and an audacious varied palette. It’s not just about technique – capturing light and form – but more about capturing the mood of the sitter and, indeed, the moment in which they are captured. Williams is not taking an objective approach – for him, it’s as though he wants to get under the skin of his sitters. He manages to evoke a lot of their personality and spirit with empathy and sensitivity.

Classically, Williams’ starting points are often still life and portraits. He also likes the idea of visiting other countries, “where the light would be very different and the terrain would be extremely different as well”. He thinks that could inspire his work in a different direction maybe, but for now, is happy with the main portraiture as a way of getting to know his subject.

“I'm always fascinated by another person's face as well as painting myself”, he explains, “it's not a narcissistic thing, as I often make myself look quite ugly”. A method that he would like to take on board would be to start maybe five or six paintings all at the same time. “If you do five or six, even if there is a different subject matter, there will be a piece that has influence and perhaps starts to show you where you've gone wrong.” Sometimes it takes him two or three months to create a painting and he worries: “if I go over my paintings too much, they can become too thick.” The practical issues confronting an artist working with thick paint in that immediate way are obviously a concern: “if you brush over a gestural mark with white or whatever colour you want to use on top of a painting, if it's partly dry, it would do something very different to when it's fully wet and maybe smudge in, so much that it all becomes sort of your painting with mud, but sometimes that can bring out other things as well.”

Williams will often use paintbrushes that are maybe five or six inches wide because “it will make a very different mark. It's all about mark-making”. Williams isn’t precious about art materials either - sometimes using wallpaper scrapers because, he says, “if they're flexible enough, you get some really good marks”. There’s an engaging fearlessness in Williams’ approach to his practice. He’s relying on random chance – when you don’t force something but allow things to happen in an organic way - “somehow doing something with the brush or with a scraper that you think, where the hell did that come from? It's suddenly done something else. The magic just comes out.”

The way Bruce Williams work has been developing is fascinating and we look forward to seeing many more exhibitions as his practice develops.

www.brucewilliamspaintings.com

@brucewilliamspaintings

By Charles Osaji & Stella Keen

All images © South Coast Squared

Share this article

YOU MIGHT LIKE…