This month dot-art speaks to artist Alexis Butterfield.
Alexis is a designer with a lifelong love of buildings and history. His work draws inspiration from the everyday historic buildings and places around him, particularly within his adopted city of Liverpool.
“My artwork is about ways of seeing and valuing the everyday past that surround us. I believe historic places and buildings are not neutral objects, from the time of their creation to the present day. They can have particular and elusive qualities that I want to capture through my drawing”
Alexis works with mixed-media drawing including use of wax resists to create surfaces with sharp contrasts of tone and texture. They represent a highly personal, emotional, intellectual, and graphic response to the personality of buildings and sense of place.
Can you describe your style of art?
I am a landscape artist focused on urban landscape, history and architecture.
Which medium do you work with and what do you like about it specifically?
I work with mixed media on paper. I like how it can create contrasts by building up layers of different techniques into a single piece. I am increasingly drawn to strong visual effects and this means lots of experimenting, incorporating layers of collage, monotype print and even gold leaf alongside inks and crayon.
Can you talk us through your process? Do you begin with a sketch, or do you just go straight in? How long do you spend on one piece? How do you know when it is finished?
My work begins with walks around the city early in the morning or in the evening after work. If there is time I will layout some basic compositions that evening to prepare for my day in the studio. I am in the studio 2-3 days a week. I start around 7.30am, and keep an 8 hour day – with a completed piece at the end of it.
This gives me time in the afternoon to post the new work to my social media accounts. I work with 300g cold pressed paper. which is smooth and robust enough to take my mixed media techniques, and this is stretched onto my work table. After setting up the outlines of the piece in pencil, I then work in a more abstracted way, setting down layers of colour. I think of this stage as a counter-structure to the outline drawing, and often work in large plains of colour.
This is then worked into with a mix of brushed inks, pen and wax crayon, which creates strong contrasts of texture and acts as a resist for any further layers as the work comes to a conclusion. Calling a finish on a piece is always difficult – not helped because I enjoy taking (calculated) risks – steeling myself to make a bold move in search of a particular visual effect I am searching for. However, working in layers helps me to do this.
When did you begin your career in art?
Who or what inspires your art?
Why is art and creativity important to you?
What do you gain from being a member with dot-art?
Joining dot-art was a key step in my development as an artist. Having the platform to exhibit again was vital motivating factor that kick started my working again. I am quite a shy person, and the chance to talk to and learn from other artists and see their work alongside my own has helped me to develop as an artist.
What does it mean to be an artist in the Liverpool City Region?
Liverpool is a proud, emotional and creative city to its core, and as a relative newcomer I can only say I am equally proud to be part of it and dedicating my time to recording its heritage.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am currently developing a series of works, mainly monotypes, focused on Liverpool’s Victorian cemeteries.
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Discover more of Alexis Butterfield’s work on our online shop!