About MJ Forster

About UberBritain |  Interview with the Artist | The watercolour technique of MJ Forster

MJ Forster:  from the artist

Born in 1975, I grew up with a pencil glued to my right hand and have been painting and selling contemporary watercolours since 1989.  Raised in Northumberland, England, I have worked from my own studio gallery in the market town of Hexham since 1997.

I feel capable of working in a range of mediums and subjects yet my passion is watercolour painting and specifically landscapes. If I was to own up to an influence it would be more likely to be drawn to the draughtsman ship of Rowland Hilder than anyone else.

Self-taught and a professional artist all my adult life, I have explored the possibilities of watercolour painting in depth. In doing so I organically developed a very particular process specific to my work alone. I candidly named it Überpainting, more to myself, however the name seems to have stuck.  It means literally over and metaphorically the images are over the top, an essence, an ideal. I really want to reinvigorate people’s perceptions and perceived limitations of the medium.

The paintings have a very graphic quality; they are designed rather than painted.  An Überpainting cannot be created within one painting they have to be developed.  This can take weeks to achieve a satisfactory image.

Initially the paintings have a perceived simplicity; this is a very complex effect to achieve. I paint within a self-created set of imposed rules. I liken the work to a sonnet in the sense that they are created within a restrictive framework and out of that limitation a greater creativity emerges.

I have always found more than enough inspiration within the British landscapes yet having travelled extensively believe there are many avenues and possibilities within a global context where I can develop Überpaintings in the future.