Raphael Mazzucco Spring Collection 2016
already have a similar golden colour, like where warm sunlight reflects on grass for example. I’m hoping that it will add an extra dimension to my work, especially under the right lighting. So it could be interesting to see if people viewing the work can spot it. Which piece is your favourite from your collection and why? I can’t decide between them I’m afraid. I loved painting the sequins in “The Girl in the Sequin Dress” but I probably prefer “Sunset Sands” just slightly because it turned out exactly how I wanted it too. What materials do you use? I use oils and pretty much all of my finished pieces are in oil. I have tried acrylic over the last few years but I just don’t get on with it. Not just that I find acrylic awkward to work with but there’s something about oil paint that I just don’t get from acrylic. This is definitely going to make me sound weird I know and it’s hard to explain, but oil is kind of alluring in a way. The richness of colour, the texture and smell can feel almost edible at times. For example, painting a sky by spreading thick pink oil paint with a palette knife can sometimes feel like you’re icing a cake. Now I’m really losing it! I do also love to use chalk and charcoal to sketch out new ideas before I put them to canvas. Contrast is really important and you can’t get any more contrast than you do between the As I mentioned before, I have been quite inspired by the pre-Raphaelite painters especially Waterhouse. But I like artists like Atkinson Grimshaw and Caravaggio for their use of light, painters like Vermeer for attention to detail, Hopper for the mystery, mood and dark undertones, Rockwell for the storytelling and artists like Pollock and Warhol for their dedication to creativity. Then for style and technique, I look to living artists such as Jeremy Mann and Mark Demsteader recently, the looser style of painting is something I’m really drawn to and would love to experiment with as I perfect my own technique. For subject matter and ideas though, I tend to get inspired by my own experiences mainly and I find those ideas often resonate through a film I’m watching or a song I’m listening to at the time, that amplifies and structures those ideas in a way. black and white of charcoal and chalk. Who/what are your artist influences?
How did you start painting? I’ve always had an interest in art, ever since I can first remember. Both my Dad and Granddad were into art, especially my Granddad who was a keen amateur artist and I think that soon rubbed off on me. No matter what I’m doing I like to be creating something, whether it’s jobs I’ve had, stuff around the house, or even just cooking food, (I can’t stick to recipes, I have to start doing things my own way). Are you self-taught or have you had any formal training in art? When I left school I wanted to go on and do fine art at college but a careers adviser told me, “there is no chance of making a living as an artist”, so I was convinced to try 3D design at college instead. For a short time I did enjoy the course but as soon as they wheeled that computer out and told us we would be spending most of our time behind a screen, I lost interest, left college and got a job in furniture restoration. After that I piled all of my creativity into music for almost a decade and it wasn’t until around 2010 that I picked up a paintbrush again. It sounds unlikely I know but it was actually a walk around Castle Galleries in Cardiff Bay that inspired me to start painting again. I had just left university and was struggling to find work, I saw something in that gallery and decided to try painting again myself. So the fact that Castle Galleries represent me now, must be fate haha! But in answer to the question, I’m self-taught yes. My dad has always been a big fan of the pre-Raphaelite artists and I think over the years those images really sunk in, perhaps without noticing it much too, definitely the detail and colour but also their use of storytelling too. I love music and film also, so being able to tell a story in a painting, as a song or film would, is really important to me when I paint. However I’m still just starting out as an artist and as I’m studying other artist more, I feel like I’m getting drawn to a slightly looser style of painting. So maybe you’ll be able to see more of that as I perfect my technique and my work develops. Any personal quirky methods? Not really, not what I would call quirky anyway. However, there is something that will apply to most of my new originals though. I have recently started experimenting with gold leaf. I’ve been using 24ct gold leaf in almost all of my new pieces and sometimes only tiny amounts of it too. In some of my new originals it will be obvious but I had come up with the idea of putting at least some 24ct gold leaf in all of my work. I’m experimenting with using it in areas of the painting that would
raphael mazzucco
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