Art on the Hill: meet the artists: Benedict Mackay

The weekend of October 5-6 sees the return of Art on the Hill, the annual neighbourhood art trail for the south Bristol districts of Windmill Hill and Victoria Park. Some 78 artists will be exhibiting this year in homes and community spaces, and there will also be workshops for children, a treasure hunt, and live music.

We thought we would grab a chat with a couple of participating artists ahead of the trail, and we begin with landscape painter Benedict Mackay. Here’s Benedict with some thoughts on his work and the peculiar appeal of the art trail.

I have always, since childhood, loved art with a passion, as I do music and reading. I have always tried working at it, looking at it and loving the work of others. But the course of a teaching career and family preoccupations meant mostly that the attempt at painting had to be deferred till ‘the time was right’. It was only after retirement, nearly ten years ago, that I was able to give the practice of art a bigger place in my life.

“I knew I wanted to work with landscape” says painter and Art on the Hill exhibitor Benedict Mackay

I wanted to do something creative and started with story-writing and poetry. But I knew I wanted to go back to what had heartened me as long ago as primary school – to draw and paint. It was, indeed, my first love. I knew I wanted to work with landscape and I sought courses in acrylic painting, with the encouraging and inspiring Laurel Smart, and to have my work shared with others in workshops.

At a time of frustration – and there are many (or is it persistent?) – an artist friend said, ‘You won’t find that you have arrived “somewhere”. Wherever you get to, there will invariably be new avenues to explore,  It’s more about working out a process, your process and seeing how it best meets your aspirations at the present time.’

I work mainly in acrylic but I also love working in compressed charcoal, with the addition of pastels, collage and a mix of media. Instinctively, I work fast though I’ll take a long, long time in holding back, thinking about just what it is that I am hoping to express.  Dissatisfaction is a strong undercurrent but that is not to imply something unsatisfactory. It simply bears out what my friend said: we are constantly moving, exploring, sifting, rejecting and savouring.

Benedict works mainly in acrylic, as well as compressed charcoal, pastels, collage and mixed media

I would love to be able to express something of the feelings I have when I look at a particular landscape. Most times, I will walk in it and move with it, sketching, noticing and noting – gathering impressions on which I can work back home. And having done all that, it seems to be important to let that preparation go and to work with what remains within me.

I do not want to make a ‘realistic’ representation of a landscape. I can use the camera for that and it’d be so much ‘easier’ for me. What I want to do is to try to express the feeling of wonder, excitement or deep-breath inside-moved awareness of something that makes me glad to be part of this wondrous and fragile world. And I want to share that.

In the last couple of years, I have been working on a series of responses to the landscape described by the poet Edward Thomas, particularly in his 1914 In Pursuit of Spring.  I have been working at developing a series of over 20 walks along his London to Quantocks journey and these give me focus, constant surprises and moments of pleasure – and so further work emerges.

“I do not want to make a ‘realistic’ representation of a landscape. What I want to do is to try to express the feeling of wonder, excitement or deep-breath inside-moved awareness of something that makes me glad to be part of this wondrous and fragile world”

I am often dragged back to easier ‘make-it-like-it-looks’ habits, but I know that is a refuge to safeness and even easier appreciation by others. While I enjoy it when others like the work I make (and if they buy it it helps pay for materials, courses, journeying and so on), I do not want to make that easier appeal my goal.

I want to use my own devices, colours, strokes and responses to what I am seeing, experiencing and doing. I’d love to learn to express and communicate more by using less. Another friend told me, ‘Nothing is ever wasted – it all adds to what you eventually create’. Still another said, ‘Whatever you are doing, it’s your picture, not someone else’s. So it’s up to you to do whatever you want with the work. If painting the sky purple and the hillside yellow gets at what you want to express, go for it. It’s that expressiveness which is important.’

I have been involved in Art on the Hill for about six years and I thoroughly enjoy i.  I have been on the committee and I pay tribute to the hard work of colleagues. It takes a lot of time, discussion, energy and imagination to bring the trail about – and they are never less than generous.

Art on the Hill takes place on Oct 5-6 at homes and venues across Windmill Hill and Victoria Park. For more info, visit artonthehill.org.uk

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