'Life is better when you experience it in colour.’ These are wise words from Gregory B, an artist who paints abstract wall works with simplistic shapes and fierce hues. Driven by his fanaticism for the creative process, his works bridge the distance between nothing and something. Each time, he starts from scratch with an idea, until he can add another finished canvas to his portfolio. We spoke to him about his background, creative insights, and burgeoning art career.
Originally from a small coastal town in Northern Ireland, but these days you will find Gregory B in Périgeux, in the south of France. Ever since childhood, he experienced a meaningful connection with nature. Unlike a busy city, he spent his formative years in an environment that allowed the power of the seasons to prevail. Colossal cliffs spilled out into the sea, and a precious sense of freedom gave him a lasting peace. You can still discern this in the works he creates years later. ‘Today, this is even more important for a child,’ he says. ‘The world nowadays feels even more claustrophobic than before.’ Although he started painting only two years ago, Gregory already spent several years in the creative field. Originally, music and graphic design were his vocations. His current painting frenzy is therefore not so much the result of having found paint as the ultimate medium. Rather, it is the meditative concatenation of painting that so grips him. Letting the creative process carry you away and bring into being something that was not there before: therein lies the magic for him. ‘I love most that painting is an interactive process in which I can get my hands dirty, so to speak.’ Actually, Gregory is only in the early stage of his painting career. He first ventured into it about two years ago, which has since yielded some telling achievements. For instance, he has already sold a considerable number of works. Instagram in particular brings him a lot of visibility and name recognition as a medium. ‘Every success I have had so far, however small, came about through that platform,’ he smiles. For instance, he sold no less than eight paintings at once to Donald Glover, American writer, director, and singer, because he had seen one of his posts. In addition, the artist has already been approached by several galleries. Currently, all sales are done through his website, so he has not yet had any physical interactions with the people who love his work. Nevertheless, he feels the rich appreciation through his social channels and is already very grateful for the current point he has reached. He lets the future come to him without any particular plan. Enjoying painting and making it produce something sincere are his main priorities for now. A healthy and promising attitude, it seems to us.
There is no limit to the expression a space can have
Moving from the untamed Northern Irish countryside to a Mediterranean climate in the south of France links back to Gregory's affinity for the unaffected outdoors. Nature has a wild and untamed side in both places. That environment takes a prominent role in his search for inspiration. He says he is incredibly susceptible to the intensity of the Dordogne region and loves the positive atmosphere the place exudes. Across the boundaries of geography, culture, and lifestyle, he feels completely at home there. He encounters several castles there, for example, which have diverse banners hanging on their outer walls. Such things ignite his instincts. You can almost think of them as little works of art in themselves, because the way they move in the wind and how they catch the light prompts him to get to work in his studio himself. By his own admission, he considers the beginning to be the most difficult. The blank canvas, literally or figuratively, deciding how you want to fill it in and actively doing so are the biggest challenge. Before getting to work with the paint itself, he usually sketches his designs with Procreate on his iPad. Some days, it takes him no less than an hour to conceptualise five or six separate works; at other times, his creativity dries up for a while and he is not satisfied with what he comes up with. Nevertheless, every time, he eventually lands on the right meditative wavelength to work out a successful idea.
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Images courtesy of Gregory B
Text by Cara Jacobs