ARTHUR BUXTON

Telling Stories with Colour

Arthur Buxton is an artist whose practice reveals the interaction between traditional and digital methods. He has obviously been influenced greatly by his father Richard Buxton and you can see this influence in much of his current and previous digital print work. Arthur’s work is precise and ordered yet eclectic with a specific ‘style’ shaped using both silkscreen and digital processes and also laser cutting and mixed media.

The main body of work he showed was created using online code and reproduced as limited editioned digital prints (A1 editions of 50 prints), sourcing the work of recognisable artists, Vogue magazine covers or children’s books and converting the paintings, covers or book illustrations into simplified pie chart icons or slices of colour.  Each painting, magazine or book page was simplified into its major colour components. Then these individual opaque coloured chunks were imported individually into illustrator and laid out either in a linear block or circular format.  The ‘Chronological’ themes linking differences in colour palettes through time have been explored – for example the series of pie chart icon prints inspired by paintings of Paul Gauguin, Monet and Van Gogh and also the linear prints inspired by Vogue London and Paris series from 1981 – 2011.

Originally I think the idea of dissecting famous oil paintings was a means for Arthur to ‘make recognisable artist’s work accessible’, something I am attempting to do with my own Renaissance prints. However, he said that the work was ‘not created for an art audience more for online audiences’ where his famous painting pie icons (which became limited edition prints) were meant initially as an online colour quiz.

The colour narrative and sequential theme led to the creation of the COLOURSTORY APP This app is designed to ‘tell ones own story with colour’. One can upload an image and extract the main colour values from it. These colour values are then simplified into slabs of ‘relevant, recognisable’ colour and used to generate personal objects for posterity; i.e. using landmark photographic images and by extracting five simple colours, generating personal patterns for prints, products for use in the home e.g. Framed prints, lampshades, soft furnishings etc. 

Arthur was self effacing and sincere about his practice, describing many digital print art pieces with quiet passion. There is something sophisticated but also scientific about his approach, particularly linked to these themes of ‘Mass Customerisation’.  

Arthur’s motivational approach was inspiring but what stood out for me was his hugely generous collaborative spirit – the belief of sharing ideas unconditionally with others. Art Smart!