Portsmouth City based artist Colin Merrin’s work is deeply absorbing, multifarious, and emotive. He has exhibited widely in solo and group shows across the UK and mainland Europe since 1981. Essentially an oil painter, Colin is also an established watercolorist, elected to the Royal Watercolour Society in 2009 with work featured in numerous collections, including Queen Elizabeth’s. I had the great pleasure to speak to him about his career and current projects.
Colin, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. How and when did you begin to take an interest in the arts, especially painting?
I’ve always been interested. At school, the lessons I got the most from were art, English, and history. I liked football too, but in terms of real ability, I could draw. I also enjoyed and did well at creative writing. Although my parents were very encouraging, the idea of studying art was fairly alien to them. I always knew I wanted to be an artist, but, as an East London teenager in the late ’60s, early ’70s, I thought art was something only posh people did. Painting however was the only area of work I ever wanted to be involved in. The sheer act of painting was and still is, both absorbing and exciting. It isn’t just the results I like, it’s the constant experimentation, the possibilities, and occasional surprises that keep me doing it.
You studied at Maidstone College of Art, Kingston University, and the University of London, Institute of Education. Please share your experiences of these institutions and how they influenced your early practice?
I enjoyed art college, but I think I learned more from other students than from any of the lecturers. In general, the teaching for me, as I can’t speak for others, was poor. I had a couple of excellent tutors on foundation, one guy, in particular, Jack Jackson, a sculptor who’d been working in the USA, really taught me about seeing and drawing. He taught us how to question and think about what we see. I chose, unwisely, to do graphics at degree level…..some daft idea about choosing the vocational option. I always thought fine art was for posh people. Utter nonsense of course, but it’s that working-class thing about having paid work or you starve. No one I knew ever made a living as an artist.
Among my fellow students were people who wanted to move away from graphic design towards illustration and printmaking. I liked the sound of that, but being fairly stubborn and bloody-minded, I decided to do something no one else had tried to do in the college at that time, which was to make an animated film, so I went to the library, found a book and taught myself. I made two short films. On reflection, they were terrible, despite friends telling me otherwise. It proved to me, however, that the way of the artist was to stick to your own path and do what feels right. I worked as an animator for a few years when I left art college, but realized what I enjoyed most was creating storyboards. It was working out ideas through drawing. A sequential sketchbook if you will. I have since kept sketchbooks religiously and this approach to work has remained my modus operandi ever since.
I worked for many years as a teacher, eventually as headteacher of a pupil referral unit in East London. My students had all been excluded from mainstream schools. I had completed an MA in Psychology and Education a few years earlier at the Institute of Education, University of London and while I kept these two areas of my working life separate, I could see crossovers emerging. In particular, the rise of populism made me consider and research the absurdities of human behavior and bring this into my painting.
You’re an oil painter and an established watercolor painter, but prominently use a mix of mediums in your work. Acrylic, charcoal, graphite, pastel, and gesso on canvas. In your recent work is there any particular methodology you apply when working with mixed media, especially on larger works?
No, I take a very random, abstract approach initially. I like a range of materials because I enjoy their interaction; the possibilities and occasionally mismatches between different materials never fail to interest me. The paintings are an accumulation of layers of paint, other materials, and collage. As each layer is applied I like to see something of the previous layer peeping through. I’m quite brutal with my painting and will scrape back sometimes or completely re-work areas when I think it’s not working. I try never to waste a canvas or any surface and sometimes there are as many as four or five other paintings underneath a finished work. Even though it can’t be seen, the under-image, if there is such a word, remains part of the picture’s history.
Are there any particular artists that have influenced your work?
I don’t look for influences, few of us do. The important thing for any artist is to establish something unique, however, it’s equally true to say the work of all artists, poets, writers, musicians, etc, is derivative. We learn from our ‘forebears’, but what we do is add to the inquiry, build on what’s already laid down and aim to continually develop our unique expression. Having said that, I’m especially drawn to Dada and the German expressionists such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, John Heartfield, and Kurt Schwitters. I’m also interested in the work of Edward Burra, RB Kitaj, Richard Rauschenberg, Jacob Lawrence, and Jean Michele Basquiat. All for varying reasons.
I’m drawn to your selection of works titled ‘The Perilous Nature of Bloodymindedness’. This includes the visually arresting ‘We’ll Remember’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’. Please tell us more about the inspiration for the series.
Titles are important. I regard language as part of my bank of materials. Words are part of the painting as lyrics are to songs. They form part of the narrative but not necessarily all of it. They make marks on the surface, as much as paint or charcoal. The current series ‘The Perilous Nature of Bloodymindedness’ introduces the idea of found poetry to my work. Using the process developed by the great Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara, I use old texts, cut them up, and reform them into new meanings. This technique was further developed by the American writer William Burroughs as well as David Bowie when composing lyrics to his songs. All my current work questions the idea of meaning. All meanings are made up, inventions to help us make sense of the world. My paintings explore the absurdity of meaning. What is particularly interesting is how much of what appears not to make rational sense actually provides insights into our subconscious
Please share with us your creative process and your choice of material?
As I said before the initial stages are very random, but this in itself is difficult as the rational person in all of us wants to make sense of things. I can only say that in order to be an artist, certainly as far as I see it, integrity is paramount. I have no concerns about making work for a market. Art as an investment is a planet away from where I am. You make art because you want to make art and so the process can only begin when you’re free of the constraints of the so-called market. It always begins with you and your idea and not with ‘will it go with the curtains’. The process is an enquiry into what’s filling my headspace, but trusting that the marks I’m making are the right marks. It’s harder than it sounds.
You’re a member and studio holder at Art Space Portsmouth. Can you tell us more about Art Space and the arts community in Portsmouth?
Art Space is a registered charity providing affordable studio spaces for artists. It’s in its 40th year and has had many of the UK’s most prominent artists, both as studio holders and exhibitors through its doors, including a Turner Prize winner and seven Turner Prize nominees. Today there are 31 studio holders and another 20 or so off-site members. Nevertheless, Portsmouth or Pompey as we call it has an extraordinary number of artists and makers in the city. It is also home to many musicians, writers, and poets as well as painters, sculptors, printmakers, ceramicists, designers, and illustrators. It’s a richly historical and diverse city, often beautiful, especially around old Portsmouth and Southsea seafront, but it has, like most urban centers, its dark underbelly. The artists’ community reflects the many facets of Pompey
What has been your most satisfying achievement as an artist and why?
Difficult to say as all achievements are satisfying. Finishing a painting that I’m happy with is probably the most satisfying at the time, however, my election to the Royal Watercolour Society in 2009 was something of a landmark for me. I was never really interested in belonging to any particular club or society as I hate elitism, but being thought good enough by some of the finest artists in the country to be elected, was a big deal. I loved the fact also that I was asked to stand. I think the approval of your peers is a kind of achievement, especially as artists, we are often working in a vacuum and the idea of showing and putting your work forward can be traumatic.
What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a series of smaller works and works on paper. My work evolves rather than changes and each painting is a one-off piece. I focus all my attention on working it through to a conclusion before deciding on whether it’s part of a series or not.
Where can our readers find out more about you?
www.colinmerrin.co.uk (Website)
#colinmerrin (Instagram)
featured images Selfish Love, A Faith Which Kept the Living Present, and She Understood My Vigilance ( Mixed media) courtesy of Colin Merrin
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