October 2020 – Paul Vickery

When did you start making art? I’ve always dabbled but only started painting regularly when I moved to Chelmsford about 13 years ago. It’s accelerated in the last two years.

What sort of art do you create? Has this changed over time? In the main it has been aggressive figurative painting but it’s always nice to experiment with tighter, more controlled work once in a while. More recently I’ve been working on a series of abstracts and text related paintings. I like Gerhard Richter’s approach; he does the lot; photorealism, abstract expressionism, minimalism, pop art.

What inspires you? Watching documentaries on artists such as Sean Scully, Howard Hodgkin and Frank Auerbach. James Kalm’s half-assed video blogs on the New York art scene are inspirational too.

What do you do if you’re not inspired? Work through it. I mainly paint at the weekend so I’m fairly miserable if I let one pass without anything to show for it. Failing that there’s always James Kalm.

Where do you practice art? My shed. Freezing in winter!

How often do you create? Weekends, but I’ve stayed at work in London during the week since March so sometimes I’ll do something in the evenings there. Still cold in Winter!

What’s the best thing about being an artist? The process and finishing.

What superpower would you have and why? Time travel. I’d be able to see early Queen and Jean Michel Basquiat shows and clean up at the bookies.

Paul’s work also features in our 2021 Art Calendar

You can see all of our other past exhibitions here.