Artist challenged to bring paintings to life

Six months ago, award-winning artist Nick Archer set himself a challenge. Inspired by an installation he saw in Paris by William Kentridge some years ago, Archer, a resident at The School Creative Centre in Rye, left his trademark large canvases behind and absorbed himself in the creation of a digital installation – part film, part animation – that will see him “bring [his] paintings to life”.

Archer had recently been working on a series of paintings based on winter and snow, and took these as his inspiration for Winter’s Tale. He says: “When I paint I usually work from photographic or scenic references, so it seemed a natural progression to take this work into film and animation – in some way completing the circle.”

His aim with Winter’s Tale was to recreate the process of making a painting, warts and all. “When I make a painting the image comes and goes and transforms into something else. At times paint flows effortlessly and at other times the image is hard won and fought over. It is only when the painting is finished that traces of the under painting and its history are evident in the complex surfaces and layers.”

Unlike the layers of his canvases, the use of animation allows Archer to play out each stroke like a time-based narrative. Images emerge and then change slightly or just get wiped away.

His approach to this project has been very different and a real learning curve. The images are hand painted on glass and the painstaking preparation required for each shot (of which there are more than 6,000) has been physically challenging and tested his patience. He says: “When working on canvas I have the luxury of being able to stand back and deliberate on each stroke but with this I need to work quickly and can’t stop.”

To master the technical side of making the animation Archer was helped by his sister Rebecca Archer, who is in her final year of studying animation at Farnham College of Art. In fact the production turned into a family affair as his other sister, also an artist, plays the part of the young girl in the film.

Provided with guidelines and a structure of how to work – which on one level were essential – in typical Archer fashion he found the rules were there to be broken. Rather than working with a storyboard he was much happier working spontaneously: “I never quite knew where any scene was taking me – a process much closer to painting.”

Set to Elgar’s ‘The Snow’, Winter’s Tale is a piece about memories in a winter landscape; at times empty and haunting and other times full of incidence and movement. The work will be presented on a 10ft gauze suspended so that visitors can interact with the piece, viewing it from all sides and getting a slightly different perspective from the double projections. Archer says: “This has been a real labour of love and a realisation of a long-held dream made possible by the help from The School Creative Centre in providing me with the space to work, equipment and the opportunity to showcase the project at their end of year extravaganza, Christmas Bizarre.

Winter’s Tale will be presented on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th December (open 10am-4pm, entrance is FREE) at The School Creative Centre’s Christmas Bizarre – a magical fair with beautiful hand-made crafts from highly original designers and makers. For more information about Winter’s Tale and Christmas Bizarre, go to www.theschoolcreativecentre.co.uk.