About

About UberBritain | Interview with the Artist

Born in Oxford in 1975, MJ Forster initially studied a foundation in the arts at Newcastle College of Art and Design before pursuing a degree in Sports Science. The artist spent much of his spare time continuing to paint and draw and upon graduation, quickly resumed his artistic career. Following an extremely successful solo show in his now native North East, he instantly established his own gallery space in Northumberland, exhibiting and selling his work to a local audience.

Continuing his artistic progression, MJ Forster has developed a distinct style and technique associated with the medium of watercolour, reinvigorating what is traditionally perceived as a conventional medium. The work has an almost graphic quality, and contains a feeling of enhanced hyper reality, perhaps intimating something close to a utopian ideal. The fascination and inspiration for the contemporary paintings though, is deeply rooted in the artist’s immediate and wider environment and in particular the unique and varied British landscapes.

Initially, MJ Forster’s watercolour work has a sense of perceived simplicity. The heightened colour values are realised by a series of controlled watercolour washes empathetic to the screen-printing process. The methodical layering of the separate washes, applied dry on dry, allows the surface to open up a much broader palette. Forster likens 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.

The artist’s process for each original watercolour is one of reductionism. Likened to a sculptural form, the pictorial space is put through a rigorous design process until what remains is the very core of a place. Through this Forster explores the quintessence of British landscapes, painstakingly executed over a series of studies, every one an advancement on the last.

Over the past ten years, interest and demand in MJ Forster’s watercolour work has grown considerably. During this time the artist has travelled extensively to develop his original watercolour technique. Over a period of two years he lived, worked and exhibited his contemporary paintings in South East Asia, Mexico, Northern America and Canada eventually reaching the Arctic Circle before spending an intensive developmental period painting in Otago, New Zealand. Working Plein Air in these challenging yet inspiring locations has defined the way the artist has sought to find the very soul of the landscape.