"For me, art has always been more about how you make something and an understanding of materials and form, and then developing this with the times and world we live in."
In today's 'Five Minutes with...' interview, we sit down with Glaswegian artist, Ralph Anderson, to discuss his new exhibition 'Dig', currently being exhibited at JGM Gallery in Battersea.
Read on as Anderson explains his new body of work, which alludes to the archaeological excavation process of sanding, by building layers of paint to reveal what's hidden below, and to learn what inspires his work...
Can you tell us about the exhibition ‘Dig’ at JGM Gallery?
‘Dig’ is an exhibition of a new body of work that I have been developing for a couple of years. They are all paintings, and the title refers to the excavation process of sanding through built-up layers of paint and revealing what’s hidden and left below. I love this way of making as I never really know how the painting is going to end up, and the surface has this very rich but worn appearance from the speckles and remnants of all the layers of paint. I am also very excited as this work is a return to figurative and landscape painting after many years of producing abstract works.
What inspires your work?
One of the greatest inspirations for me is other people’s art. Every time I walk through a museum or gallery, I'm filled with an urge to make something as well and contribute to this fantastic world of creativity. Saying that, the inspiration or spark for this show came from the studio. I had been trying to find a way to recreate gouged-out marks that you’d find on benches, trees, and brick walls and eventually started to build layers of paint and sand back into them. I completely loved the results, and ever since, I have been developing this technique into its own painterly language.
Beyond that, it is studying and thought. What makes a good painting? What makes a good mark? How do colours go together and work together well? How do you make the surface of a painting interesting? So, in the end, it becomes more about answering questions than the initial inspiration.
What trends do you see emerging in the arts in 2025?
I feel that we are slowly moving back to art being more about the craft and less fabricated, gimmicky, or agenda-driven. For me, art has always been about how you make something and an understanding of materials and form, and then developing this with the times and world we live in.
If you weren’t an artist, you’d be…
Strangely, before going to art school, I was studying accountancy. I did two years of it and still remember the moment at the back of a large lecture hall when I thought, “What am I doing?” I went straight to the course leader and told him that I was leaving the course and wanted to go to art school, and he, very kindly and patiently, suggested I should finish the year, which was just a few weeks away, sit my exams, and then I would at least leave with a qualification. I still have my certificate somewhere.
What’s your favourite-ever piece of art (that you own or wish you owned)?
I find this the most difficult question, so I will have to go with one of my earliest memories and influences, which was a print of a Pissarro painting that was in our living room when I was very young. It was one of his paintings of the road to Louveciennes, and I would sit and stare at it as a child, happily transfixed in this world he had created. I would obviously like to have the original now!
