Talking with Dave Gilmore (venue: Marlborough Head )
One of the newcomers to the 2015 Rochford Art Trail
Rochford Life: Dave, meeting a number of the newcomers to the Rochford Art Trail, I find people in the early days of art and others clearly have been around a long time with a lot of work under their belts. Looking around your studio, you are clearly one of the latter.
Dave: Yes, there was a period when I wasn’t doing much; that was when I was at work full time in local government, but now I’ve gone back to it big time.
RL: Would you be considered a professional painter now?
Dave: Well I don’t earn my living through painting and I still work part-
RL: Looking at your works, you clearly like water.
Dave: At the moment. I’ve done the Renoir’s a few years ago, and that was a period when I went through painting Old Masters but now I’m into seascapes. I’m carrying on doing these for a while. It was by accident really because a guy I go out painting with is heavily into boats and up until I started these I really hadn’t considered doing boats, but at the moment it’s what I enjoy doing, so I shall carry on doing it.
Introducing some of the newcomers to the Rochford Art Trail
RL: You will be showing in the Marlborough Head I believe?
Dave: That’s right, and they are going to set me up in a little corner by a window to paint and they’ve given me a wall on which to display. I’ll probably be hanging five or six paintings there.
RL: You clearly have a lot of work here. Do you do your own exhibitions?
Dave: No, I’ve never done my own one, I’ve always been part of exhibitions, like Art Trails. Years ago I did exhibit in Southend Library. I did the Hadleigh Art Trail a year ago I think it was, the Hockley one the last couple of years, and now this year the Rochford one for the first time. I like to paint on site but not every venue enables you to do that.
RL: You really like to get hands on in a Trail?
Dave: That’s right. A lot of artists don’t like people talking to them when they are working, but I don’t mind; in fact I quite like it. One of the reasons I like doing art trails is that I like talking to fellow artists, even if their work isn’t what I would normally do; it’s just nice talking to people.
RL: Artists’ work always intrigues me so I often ask the question, how long would one of these paintings take you to paint?
Dave: Well, take the one I was working on at the Market last Saturday. We were there I suppose six hours and I probably spent four and a half hours painting and there’s probably about another hour’s work, so probably in the region of six hours. It’s rarely in one go. I’ll go out on site and start the painting and then bring it back home and finish it off. Maybe I’ll take photographs to help complete it. The idea is to refresh the memory. I don’t think you should copy photos but use them to give you ideas; that’s just my thinking, use a photograph as a sketch book if you like. Sometimes I’ll go out with a sketchbook but mostly I’ll just go out with an easel and paint. I don’t do a lot of sketching. I do a lot of life drawing and have taken life classes for a number of years
RL: These appear to be oils. Do you only work in oils?
Dave: Yes, I only work in oils because I’ve tried acrylics but don’t really like them. I have done water colours but I like the juiciness of the oils and the smell and I like the fact that you can rub them off if you make a mistake. I just like the whole idea of oils. I just don’t get on with acrylics.
RL: Well Dave, I’m going to stop it there. These are supposed to simply be short introductory articles, introducing artists new to the Rochford Trail so that people will be on the lookout for them. Dave, thank you for your time and for sharing. I hope your time in the Marlborough Head will be enjoyable and I’ll drop in sometime during the trail to see how it is going. Thank you again.
You can also see Dave on the Pre-