Artist: Toby Jaxon

Influences + Inspiration: The power of nature, pressures on the environment, the omnipresent visual impact of scenery and the weight of life: all these elements influence my imagery. 

One word that represents the strongest influence on my painting style is ”colour”. As an interior designer and an artist, I have never been afraid of using colour:  from subtle muted shades to brilliant clear tones, colour lends my works an impact and effect that stimulates the visual senses. Finally, I take any colour, team it with a flash of white, and create instant freshness and energy.

My own perfectionist standards demanded laborious efforts to create early paintings displaying a classical and hyperrealistic approach; however, I soon began to incorporate elements of impressionism, cubism and fauvism in my work. My most influential sources of inspiration have always been some of the great post-classical masters: impressionists such as Monet and Degas and the Neo-Impressionists such as Seurat, Cezanne, and Gauguin, great masters who elevated the principle of colour division through the juxtaposition of pure colours. In my painting I try to exploit the true colours of the natural world, introducing bright hues that are far removed from reality, and designing rendered impressions of nature.

Process:  My compositions are mostly inspired by the vastness and mystery of nature. Naturally lime green marks my typical under-painting; it lurks in the background, popping through sporadically, enough to persuade unification through the entire piece. Forward through the landscape, I develop a relationship of naïve colour shapes placed exactingly, creating a dynamic rendition, a shock effect that alters the visual sense. Close-up the viewer sees abstracted shapes, but from a distance experiences a sophisticated rendering.
Using colour to create luminosity, I celebrate the vitality of my community and its geography in many of my paintings. - Toby Jaxon