Art / Interviews
Painting familiar scenes in unexpected moments
For 20 years, Richard Castor Jeffery has lived and worked from home just behind Gloucester Road close to Ashley Down, in an area that some people would call Horfield and others Bishopston.
The architect turned artist is inspired by his local area, painting scenes that he has taken on his iPhone on walks and errands around the neighbourhood.
Richard has painted numerous scenes of shopfronts, houses and alleyways, and is particularly interested in how familiar scenes can look completely different as light conditions change throughout the year.
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‘Fish Bar’ – oils on panel, 18x24cm, by Richard Castor Jeffery: “A view of my local chippy on the Gloucester Road, catching some early morning rays. It is the bluest blue and (not related) has the best fish & chips. A Friday night favourite!”
How do you decide which buildings to paint? They might appear humdrum to some but not to you? Or is ordinary sort of the point?
“I’m lucky that local buildings catch my attention, often without me looking for them. I might just be on the way to the shops for a loaf of bread or pint of milk. I’m drawn to striking combinations of light and shade; colour; and simple, sometimes abstract, shapes. The changes in light in different seasons and at different times of day, along with artificial light, streetlights, shop signs and so on are always throwing up new and exciting combinations for me – showing things I see every day quite literally in a new light.”
To me, they appear to be the antithesis of Instagrammable exteriors while still retaining a different sort of beauty. Is that fair to say?
“I don’t think there’s anything surprising or particularly revealing about seeing a painting or photograph of a ‘pretty’ building and, in a way, they run the risk of becoming commonplace and unremarkable. By contrast, there can be real beauty and emotion in seeing something that you usually ignore or take for granted presented unexpectedly as something worthy of real attention. I think the familiarity of the simple buildings we see and use everyday lends them a certain closeness and ease of understanding which makes those little moments of captured beauty all the more meaningful.”
‘Forecourt’, oils on panel, 30cm sq, by Richard Castor Jeffery: “A view of my local petrol station, sheltering from the midday sun. Thinking back to the summer (when it wasn’t raining)”
How has the area of Bristol you live in influenced your work? Can you walk down a street without getting inspired?
“I’m in the heart of the Victorian suburb, with its terraces, small shops and back streets. Walking around my local area, I see it at all times of the day and night, in all weathers and, most importantly, in all sorts of different lights. With my iPhone camera in my pocket, I’m always on the lookout for inspiration (which frequently comes when you least expect it). Often it can be a brief combination of sunlight, shadow and colour and I need to be quick to take a photo before the clouds move or a bus gets in the way, and it’s gone.”
Are there any other areas of Bristol you will be looking to paint in the future?
“The vast majority of my paintings are of views within a five-minute walk of my house. I wonder if that means I’m a lazy artist? But I haven’t felt the need yet to explore much further afield. These are the places I’m most familiar with, and that I also get to catch in those unexpected moments. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve nearly exhausted all the possibilities on my doorstep but then the season changes and everything looks different again. I particularly enjoy this time of year, with the low sun, long shadows and the lights on inside buildings in the late afternoon. There are quite a few shops that I’ve painted multiple times, and each time they’ve interested me in a new way through how they look in a different light. I am, though, planning a few paintings of the interiors of some of Bristol’s multi-storey car parks, for a bit of variety!”
‘At the Crossing 2’, oils on panel, 18x24cm, by Richard Castor Jeffery: “I’ve always liked the simplicity of the green box (local off-licence), caught here with the shadow of the Royal Oak, perfectly aligned with the crossing.”
Is there a particular architectural style that you look for?
“It’s not any specific style of building – it’s simplicity and familiarity that interest me the most. The more ‘invisible’ the building the better, in terms of style and character, as this provides a blank canvas for the play of light and colour. The less ‘designed’ the building, the better, too. I love buildings with the sorts of random roofs, odd windows and accidental colour schemes that come when a shop or house has been changed over the years by multiple occupants. The area around the Gloucester Road is a perfect example of this. What was once a fairly homogenous Victorian development has been stripped of its original decoration, shopfronts changed, stonework painted, windows added or filled in, signs added and roofs changed to the point that no two buildings are the same. It’s still constantly changing. Similarly, the backs of houses and small industrial buildings often have lots of interest and character, showing the effects of time and repeated adaptations.”
How has being an architect influenced your work?
“I studied general art at school (O & A levels) but after that I trained and worked as an architect for about 30 years, before getting into painting again just before the pandemic at the start of 2020. I can see in hindsight that when I worked as an architect, producing a beautiful drawing or model was always the part of the job that gave me the most pleasure. I haven’t made any models recently, but my painting is certainly a continuation of my interest in that sort of architectural representation. I’m keen to use the techniques I’ve used as an architect through my art. For example, I often edit and simplify certain aspects of a view, while heightening others in order to convey the effect I want. I’m keen to develop this idea and experiment with creating ambiguities of scale to add a certain abstract quality, as an architectural model can.”
‘358 & 360 Gloucester Road’, oils on cradled panel, 45cm sq, by Richard Castor Jeffery: “Enjoying capturing the light and the accidental composition of intense colours at this time of the evening on the Gloucester Road.”
Follow Richard Castor Jeffery on Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date with his latest work, or visit his official website: www.rcjfineart.co.uk
Main image: ‘Cashpoint’ by Richard Castor Jeffery
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