Collings Art

Our last exhibition was the ‘Oil Painting Improvers’ exhibition.

I was born in Chingola, Northern Rhodesia and spent my early years playing in the bush in the Copperbelt. I loved the open space and heat of Africa and the bright colours in the flora and fauna. However, the beautiful sunsets that painted the skies briefly before sunset, are what inspired me to paint. 

However, having been thrown out of my art class at school because I could not draw a swan, I decided I was no good at art and took up pottery instead. At home, my mother used to colour photos from sepia prints and I used to love the smell of the oils and the deft way she would roll the cotton wool over a cocktail stick to produce a fine line or the highlight in an eye , which gave me a desire to paint portraits in oil. 

But it was only when we arrived in England in the cold, wet and snow, huddled around a heater and missing the warmth of Africa, that we stumbled across ‘Paint Along  With Nancy Kominsky ‘’; an oil painting course on television, painting with a knife, which was like icing a cake and following a recipe! I learnt about different tones and how to use a grid to draw more accurately. My early paintings were a little hit and miss, but found that using a knife created a more direct influence on the canvas, producing texture and form, making the painting come alive. 

With family and teaching commitments, it was only when I retired from teaching English, that I decided  to enrol in an Oil Painting Improvers Course at the Kent Adult Education arm of the Canterbury Academy, Knight Avenue , Canterbury.

Here I was introduced to the wonderful world of artists from Van Gough to Shishkin, Paul Klee to Hockney, by our very accomplished teacher /artist Liam Thompson. Through patient and expert advice and demonstration we learnt how to use the brush to create different effects and tone on canvas: blending, layering and  twirling to create different marks. We were also taught to use the knife to create depth and pastiche. 

I find in most of my paintings I am trying to recreate my memories of Africa: the sunsets, the vibrant colours and the memories of holidays in Durban South Africa where we loved splashing in the rough seas or simply watching the waves crash over the rocks to shore. 

I also enjoy learning from the masters, so have tried to copy paintings by  well known artists, or examined the way artists have brought light into their paintings, like Sorolla.

Over these 8 years of study I have learnt how to mix paints and to create portraits, drawing with the right side of the brain and try to mimic the styles of Rembrandt and the Australian Impressionists. It has been an exciting journey but I am still constantly challenged and wanting to improve my technique and experiment with other mediums. 

View Gail’s Gallery

I was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia and became a barrister in the High Court at the age of 21. Having pursued a career in law until my retirement in 2015, I have found that my precision and accuracy with words has followed me into my painting style. Struggling against that is an almost opposite desire to paint in a looser, freer style. Those two opposing forces tend to war against each other, and I must leave it to the viewer to decide which has prevailed in each work.

I have always enjoyed drawing, constantly sketching people on the bus, in the market place, at the airport, and I am fascinated with the ways people interact so I usually have a sketch pad handy to capture the moment.  Career and family squeezed out painting for many years, with a few exceptions. However,on  approaching retirement I was able to join with Gail in attending formal tuition in acrylics and oils  under the tutelage of Ian Rayner and then Liam Thompson.
I have dabbled in Watercolour but I definitely favour oils at present.

 I have long enjoyed using palette knives to create dramatic form and movement in my seascapes and surprising depth in my portraits. A little to my surprise, perhaps, I have loved painting Still Life and trying to master the skill of depicting reflections on shiny objects.

One of those paintings I most enjoyed was my oil painting of Venice in the Rain, capturing a Turneresque sky and using pinks to reflect on the wet stones of St Mark’s Square. I also enjoy painting seascapes, capturing the force of the waves, or the copy of Joachim Sorolla’s painting of the  fishermen on the beach.  My greatest love is boats, so many of my paintings will feature boats bobbing on the waves or resting in a harbour or waiting for the tide in a creek. I have experimented with modern art but I prefer to paint realism and aim to capture the mood and the light in each painting I do. 

Abstract art is not my main aim, but it does creep into some works, such as Lighthouse Eclat, where the foaming seas have a defying lack of form.

I find painting deeply absorbing and highly challenging, and I am convinced that the best is yet to come.

View Martin’s Gallery

All images on this site are copyright Gail Collings or Martin Collings. Please note that this site is unable to handle online sales. if you are interested in purchasing a particular painting, please get in touch via e-mail or see us at one of our exhibitions.

martin@collingsart.co.uk and gail@collingsart.co.uk