Chris Juson – Collage Artist

Chris Juson at her Caerbladon exhibition (c) David Drake

I first became interested in collage after seeing the work of an artist called Mike Bernard who did wonderful collage paintings of places all over Britain.  I had always enjoyed sticking bits of newspaper into paintings so started to emulate his style.  I decided to try local scenes at first and gradually developed my own style incorporating print connected to Malmesbury.  The first few paintings seemed to be popular, particularly with people who lived in the area so I started to collect lots of promotional leaflets which were cut up and placed in the paintings.  It was fun finding the right place to stick on some printed matter.  I have been to various classes and tried lots of different media but I kept coming back to collage.

I tend to wander round the town with my phone, taking pictures of likely scenes then I paint a few layers of acrylic roughly in the right areas before sketching out the scene.  Then, with a mixture of acrylic inks and acrylic paints I start painting,  adding bits of printed matter where I think it will blend in and where I think it is pertinent and tissue paper to give texture.  Sometimes it is quite humorous and the viewer has to hunt around to see what there is.  

Having volunteered at the Museum for a long time I have learned a lot about Malmesbury.  It is my local town although I don't actually live there and it has many nooks and crannies and even just ordinary streets that lend themselves to my way of painting.  I realised it was no use copying other people's styles but to just paint my own way and I would recommend any artist to follow their own path and be true to themselves.  Malmesbury has a lot to offer anyone wanting to use it as a subject for their creativity.