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- 10 - 19
British artist Roger Holtom's practice is based on the principle of learning through experimentation. He has spent the last three decades creating arresting abstract paintings using a wide variety of media, often combining unexpected materials such as household paints and bitumen, oil paint and sand, acids and pure pigments. Over time Holtom has learned how to manipulate his chosen combinations, resulting in works that are both rooted in his own knowledge but also imbued with the spirit of improvisation.
"My studio is the laboratory in which I do that processing: adding, subtracting, breaking apart and joining together - experimenting over and over again with the ideas that have emerged from my previous play and conducting an ongoing dialogue with the work in progress."- Roger Holtom, June 2018
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Twenty-five years ago, at the peak of my former career as a professional cellist, I began experimenting with paint and found that it allowed me a refreshingly different type of expression than through classical music. Moreover, it gave me a means of indulging my long-standing fascination with the craft of the improvisor.
Principles of composition, tonality, texture, colour, rhythm and nuance being common to both disciplines, I was able to take my knowledge of these fundamentals and apply them to an ongoing investigation into the art of improvisation - from the perspective of a visual artist.
Unlike the transience of a musical performance, the gradual evolution of an artwork allows one to stand back and enjoy not only the process but also a final result which can be revisited and appreciated long into the future.
Working as a professional cellist has almost certainly affected my painting technique, however. It has been observed, for instance, that I paint 'with my whole body'. Whether throwing paint at the canvas, distressing the surface or applying a wash, I find that the best results are achieved by harnessing the power of one's core body-mass, which is unquestionably the case when playing the cello.
I still play the cello regularly but now concentrate solely on the Six Suites for Solo Cello by J. S. Bach. Following the example of Pablo Casals I play one complete Suite every day. The fluency I have established as a painter is thus enriched and informed by the architectural purity of Bach, representing a unique form of research into the parallels between these two disciplines."
Unit 12, 21 Wren Street, London, WC1X 0HF
