Having no professional training and being a self taught artist, Proctor saw the emersion of his style develop and this was greatly encouraged by his father who himself, was a commercial artist. From a young age Proctor would illustrate and copy images from books, particularly birds where his fascination grew in the subject of natural History. Spending weekends, as well as weekdays, (secretly with ... read more
Having no professional training and being a self taught artist, Proctor saw the emersion of his style develop and this was greatly encouraged by his father who himself, was a commercial artist. From a young age Proctor would illustrate and copy images from books, particularly birds where his fascination grew in the subject of natural History.
Spending weekends, as well as weekdays, (secretly without his parents knowing), Proctor would spend long days situated by the river Croquet at Felton in Northumberland seeing the true beauty that lay within the landscape of his surroundings and would continually paint and sketch the views before him, truly appreciating the wonders that nature had to offer. This then transcended to scenes of people in their urban environment, the town of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Returning to full time painting over the past few years, Proctor's drive is his inspiration, his son Jack and the continual need to study, produce and think about art is what makes the artist so successful today. The process of painting is where the excitement lays. For the artist, the action and motion of sketching or painting proves more vital than the subject matter itself.
Observing and people watching has enabled the artist to look at shape, light and colour and combine these elements within his works. Light is particularly important for Proctor as it adjusts colour and the way we view the components of an image.
Capturing people in their natural poses or gestures and doing every day simple things is where Proctor's skills lay and in his most recent works his son Jack has been the inspiration, this can be viewed in his image 'Footsteps'. The innocence and free spirit of children is another element of Proctor's practice and he continues to create images of his son capturing the fascination the artist has with the youthful movements of childhood.
Painting in only daylight, Proctor sketches out his composition in charcoal before beginning to pick up his paint brushes and applying his masterful oil paint. The skills and techniques the artist applies is to use a large mirror behind him so that the artist is always aware of how his image appears from viewing it at various angles. This is then combined with the rapidity in movement of painting, making his way across the canvas speedily so that he does not allow time to pick at the canvas and knows when to leave his image untouched. Music is also played whenever the artist creates, this can change his mood and feel of the image and allows for a brilliant momentum of movement to occur. show less
