Adam Taylor is a British contemporary artist. His paintings can be described as abstract compositions influenced by the coastal landscape of his surroundings in rural West Wales. He strives to capture the mood of the land, distilling the basic forms into pleasing shapes and colour.

He works predominantly in oils, but will use enamel paint and different textures at the beginning of the painting process, producing a final piece which is raw and layered. He trained and obtained his degree in Fine Art in 2004 at Cardiff School of Art. In 2022, Adam was selected by the artist Sean Scully to exhibit alongside him at a group show in London.

1. Can you describe your artistic journey and what led you to pursue painting?

I’ve always gravitated toward art and painting in particular, from drawing comic book characters as a child to constructing things out of junk. Before going to art college I worked in a sign shop and although it wasn’t what I wanted to do, I learned a lot about mixing paint and preparing surfaces and using spray cans etc. 

Once I’d graduated from university, I joined a band with some college friends and we toured and released music for ten years. I didn’t paint seriously until after that. The pandemic was a turning point for me. At the time I was working for a foraging company picking wild food and then lockdown happened so I could just paint 24/7, probably the best thing that happened to help me focus and create a big body of work and get serious about it.

2. How does the coastal landscape of West Wales influence your work?

I live about 6 km for the beach and in winter when it’s cold and raining, these places are deserted. There’s something I love about these vast, bleak places. I think my work feels like these minimal, empty and dream-like spaces. I used to spend hours with my foraging job collecting Seaweeds, Rock Samphie, Sea Blite and Sea Beat, just stuck out there for days on end in the wind and rain and think it just creeps in!

3. What emotions or moods do you aim to capture in your abstract compositions?

I never go into a painting knowing what I’ll paint and have no real agenda. I hope my work captures something that makes people contemplate the world or life and that it resonates. To resonate with people just using paint or music or writing is an amazing thing to experience and that’s what I’m trying to achieve. 

4. Can you explain your process of layering and texture in your paintings?

My paintings all start in the same way. I paint two layers of blue/green oil paint onto my panels thinned with linseed, galkyd and and turpentine and, once dry, the blue becomes the “ground” colour.

I then usually grid the panel up using oil pastels and start painting by mark making with a darker tone of oil paint. I’m constantly rubbing out along the way until I’m happy with the composition. I’ll mask off areas on the gridded painting to work on those sections separately. I’ll rub off almost 80 percent of my original painting as I aim for the most minimal composition, this can take two hours or two months, there no rhyme or reason to it.

5. What materials do you find essential in your artistic practice, and why?

Oil paint, oil pastels, cheap brushes, a straight edge, masking tape and rags.

My favorite thing is bitumen, the stuff that you use for preserving wood outdoors, it has the warmest tone with a black paint and reacts amazingly with white spirit. You get some great reactions with it. I’ll also occasionally use car paint spray cans for a blast of intense colour. 

6. How has your training at Cardiff School of Art shaped your approach to art?

I’m not sure that it did really. The problem was that I was young and naive when I started Art School and coming from a small town to living in a capital city, I was drawn into going to gigs and going out to pubs and bars and wasting time having fun! The opportunity really was wasted on me!

I think what I got out of it was meeting like-minded people, with an interest or talent in the arts. I joined a band, which led to loads of exciting adventures. I got to explore loads of Europe and America touring. I suppose all of these  experiences must feed into my paintings somehow, I’d have thought!

7. What was it like exhibiting alongside Sean Scully, and what did you take away from that experience?

That was amazing, I’d admired his work for years and years and he’s been a big influence on how I paint. He was painting great abstract paintings when not so many painters were, so when I got asked to be part of a show he was curating, it really was a big moment. 

8. Are there any specific themes or messages you hope to convey through your artwork?

I think I try to create some sort of world that has solitude, a dream-like world without people and the complications they bring.

Once the paintings are out of my studio and hung in the gallery they feel different somehow and it’s like I’m seeing them for the first time, it’s hard to describe.

There’s no specific message and I don’t want to preach to anyone I just hope my paintings resonate with people in that mysterious way art/music/books can.

9. How do you see your work evolving in the coming years?

Tricky question (Probably more blue/green ha).

When I go into a painting or a series of paintings with a plan or an idea, they’re always the ones that I’m unhappy with, so I’ll probably just follow my instincts and see what happens.

I have a solo show next summer again in Mallorca and the space is big and bright – I’m hoping to focus on larger scale work for that.

10. What advice would you give to emerging artists who are just starting their journey?

Some advice I read a little while back is not to waste time, if you want to be an artist then get going. Especially at university when you have all the time in the world. Don’t bother drinking or partying when you’re young and direct that endless energy and time to create, because jobs relationships and responsibilities are just around the corner and waiting to take up all your time.

Most of your peers will be partying hard when they’re young so use this opportunity to jump ahead.I think if you work hard and are focuse, it will happen and then you can party hard and booze once it happened!