Great opportunity to work with a man with very fast hands, Anthony Garratt - painter, pianist and rapid fire pun machine. Anthony is based at Jamaica Street Studios, but finds his inspiration roaming the landscapes of the UK and beyond - his vivid, charged work hovers delicately between representation and abstraction - a vision of the landscape on the edge of chaos, collapsing into colour and a riot of lines and layers. Embodying the act of looking as an act of constant re-construction - always contingent, never complete.
Anthony was commissioned by Orchestra in a Field festival to paint the festival in his energetic style and he in turn commissioned me to produce a video of this ephemeral event, it was a tough day for outdoor work in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey - beautiful classical music with typically inconsistent English festival weather. The changing light was stunning, but the torrential downpours were a real challenge - at one point when it was near completion the canvas was entirely inundated... Pretty serious when one paints with water based oils and acrylics.... It was a real credit to Ant's character and commitment to his Art that even after this mad dash to get the canvas under cover he still carried on, making repairs as best he could with a view to completing the canvas in more forgiving conditions. It's rare to see someone under pressure be able to laugh at the absurdity life throws us from time to time - but he was able to retain his humour (without gritted teeth). Following our adventure he also wrote and performed the haunting piano solo that plays over the end of the video.
Hope you enjoy the piece, it also been embedded by Thackeray Gallery, and Lost at E Minor. Anthony has a solo show that opens with Thackeray Gallery in London on 30th Oct 2012.
