Interview with The Palette Pages
April 2014
thepalettepages.com

The Palette Pages: Your landscapes are often thought to be created using industrial processes but are actually created by hand - can you tell us more about your technique?
 
David Wightman: I use a unique technique similar to marquetry – this came about almost by accident as I experimented with different collaging techniques using wallpaper. Because of the delicate nature of the wallpaper I use, each piece needs to be cut and collaged by hand. Despite thinking of my finished pieces as 'paintings', most of the process actually involves drawing, re-drawing, tracing, plotting, cutting, and collaging.

PP: Currently your artwork focuses on abstraction and landscape - how do you see your practice evolving over the next few years?
 
DW: I still see a huge amount of mileage in my dual obsessions of abstraction and landscape. I am fascinated with both genres and still feel both pursuits are ripe for further exploration. I don’t think I actually see them as two completely separate approaches to image-making though. I’m actually far more of a formalist than I would have admitted at art school. Texture, line, space, and colour, are my main preoccupations. My abstract and landscape pieces are an attempt to satisfy these obsessions in subtly different ways.

PP: You obviously gain inspiration from mixing low and high art - can you explain this combination and tell us what else inspires you as an artist?
 
DW: I first began using wallpaper in my work during my undergraduate degree and it slowly came to dominate my work over the next few years. I grew up in a house full of textured wallpaper so the paper has personal significance to me. I don’t think I quite realised that when I first starting using it though. I don’t necessarily aim to marry high and low art; after all, William Morris wouldn’t have thought of ‘wallpaper’ as low art. I’m very interested in the idea of wallpaper – however everyday it may seem – as aspirational.

PP: How important is it for you to have a distinctive instantly recognisable style?
 
DW: I’ve become known for a particular way of working (acrylic on collaged wallpaper), but the process has evolved naturally over the years and it wasn’t something I created in order to be distinctive. I actually imagined my use of wallpaper would fall away – but the opposite seems to have occurred. My interest in the possibilities and limitations of collaged wallpaper has actually increased.

PP: Where is your studio and what is it like?
 
DW: I’m based in Hackney Wick, East London. I’ve been in the area since 2004 and have witnessed huge changes to the whole neighbourhood. It certainly wasn’t a trendy competitor to Shoreditch when I moved here. My studio is as tidy as possible – my process requires I’m methodical and tidy. Visitors have commented that my studio looks more like a laboratory than an artists’ studio.

PP: If you could own just one artwork what would it be and why?
 
DW: On a recent trip to Bermuda I discovered the work of E. Ambrose Webster, so perhaps one of his landscapes. But, I’m quite happy for my favourite artwork to be in public collections. I’d much rather have access to all of the paintings in the National Gallery or the Metropolitan Museum of Art than own a particular favourite piece. My favourite artwork is constantly changing too.

PP: What are you working on currently?
 
DW: I’m currently working on new ideas for landscape pieces. I’m not quite sure what direction they’ll go in or how much my recent travels (to Bermuda) will influence their composition and colour. The blues and greens of the sea and sky in Bermuda are so intense, I’m sure they’ll inspire new colour combinations even if I don’t directly switch to painting seascapes.

The Palette Pages and David Wightman