Q1 Why do you paint?
It’s just always what I’ve done. From as young as three I can remember my parents giving me wallpaper sample books to use as sketchbooks. I constantly think about how I would recreate the things around me as a painting.
Q2 How would you describe your artistic process?
My work tends to be observationally led, rather than created from imagination. I view the world as if it is a painting: I look at how different colours and textures react when placed against one another. Looking at the wall now, I can see that the wall is a warm grey, and the frame hanging against the wall is a cooler grey, and is casting a shadow, so I’m thinking about the different colours I would mix to recreate it. It can sometimes drive me slightly mad!
Q3 What subjects do you paint?
I was always interested in Formula One from an early age, so my earlier paintings focused on depicting that split second in time where a car passes the spectator with such speed that the surrounding landscape appears pulled along by the sheer power of the car. But now I concentrate on capturing the speed, movement, or grace of a moment in time in the natural world: a darting hare, swooping owl, or glancing stag. I look at things as shapes and colours. I find breaking everything down into a collection of elements, shapes and colours means I can turn my hand to any subject.
Q4 Have you always been an artist?
I have always drawn or painted, and I’ve always viewed the things around me in terms of how I can recreate them as paintings from as young as I can remember. I left art college to pursue a successful business painting Formula One racing car commissions, which later led to me buying an art gallery and framers in Salisbury. I had always wanted to have my own business, and like the process of identifying what people want. I like the intricacies and structure of running a business - looking at the component parts and working out how to make the ‘whole’ work.
Q5 Does being an artist help running an art publishing business?
I think that the way my mind works means that I am innately suited to doing both. I constantly fragment my surroundings to their component parts and work out how I can recreate them. This helps me both to create my own paintings as well as in the colour-balancing process when reproducing other people’s work as limited edition prints.
Check out Anthony's collection of limited edition prints and original paintings on our online gallery.
