Artist Focus: Chris Forsey

"I began my art career as an illustrator in a publishers studio after studying art and graphics in Bristol. I am a self taught  painter, constantly trying to extend and add to my skills in water-based media. I have exhibited on numerous occasions with the Royal Water colour Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour. At the 2006 RI exhibition I was awarded the F DONALD BLAKE AWARD for a contemporary watercolour by Lincoln Joyce Fine Art. I am a tutor of painting and run my own painting classes in Surrey and Sussex, and in the Greek Islands. I also give lively and informative demonstrations to art societies and groups throughout South East England and am delighted to undertake commissions of landscape subjects and house portraits.

I endeavour to re-appraise my style and technique on a regular basis and this has led me towards a mixed-media approach to my work, combining watercolour, acrylic, pastel and gouache. I am exhilarated by colour and surface and enjoy creating textured layers of dry-brushed colour that allow hints of complementary hue to glow through, thus creating an exciting surface of scattered, broken colour.

I specialise in landscape subjects, exploring the themes of man-made alongside the organic: buildings by water, structure emerging from a rocky cliff. Downland, coastal images of both the UK and the mediterranean , buildings and townscapes, sometimes figures are included to bring that human touch. In all cases I am trying to capture the essence of a scene at a specific moment in time, season or time of day always endeavouring to bring passion, immediacy and validity to my work".