Friday 17th October - Capturing travel through sketchbooks, Paul Janssens

The combination of drawing and travelling has played a major part in my artwork. I was born in London where I lived until my mid-twenties and studied at Chelsea School of Art. London proved to be a great city to grow-up and study. Living in such a culturally rich city which is constantly changing fuelled both of my passions for art and travel. Destinations including Morocco, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Iberian Peninsular Italy , France, Turkey, Ireland and Britain have been recorded in my sketch-books. Each new destination has inspired me to work in a different way by experimenting with paint techniques including sgraffito, collage, screen-print and mixed media on wood, paper and canvas. I have been inspired by both the frenetic energy of urban cityscapes and dramatic landscapes. The sketch-books are valuable means for recording and documenting these locations and also a source for producing the larger paintings. The coastlines of Ireland and Britain and wetlands of East Anglia always prove challenging and exciting subjects. I often return to places to see how time has affected them, this could be the result of natural changes, such as the weather and erosion or man-made influences. I aim to create a sense of the journey by producing the paintings in a series. These paintings will often explore different views of a subject over a period of time. For the recent Northumbrian, Scottish and Dorset paintings I spent time cycling, walking and kayaking along the coast, recording the journeys in my sketch-book. On the surface of these paintings are old maps, postcards, correspondence and materials from the area. Washes of dilute paint are applied to the surface and absorb into the layers of collage. The paintings are then refined with greater detail, whilst allowing areas of the collage to remain visible.