Painting in front of an audience is a different kind of exposure. At Fresh Art Fair I demonstrated my approach to oil and cold wax — the layering, the resistance of the surface, the decisions made in real time. It is a useful discipline: the work has to speak without explanation.

For centuries, the death of painting has been proclaimed. Since the invention of printing during the Han dynasty, artists have anxiously watched each new technological advancement. When the printing press emerged, artists had valid concerns, but they eventually leveraged mechanical reproduction to replicate their work and reach a broader audience. With photography's arrival, it became clear that the representation of reality could be handed over to an optical device capable o

How to be creative with oil paint and cold wax. Using Jeff Becks guitar playing for inspiration

Every painter knows the experience of stalled momentum — the studio that feels resistant, the canvas that offers nothing back. This post reflects on what that state actually is, and on the particular discipline of returning to work not when inspiration arrives, but before it does.

Fenland Landscape Photography Monochrome

In May 2023 I gave a presentation to the Royal Photographic Society Contemporary Group at a two-day event held at Foxton, Cambridgeshire. The theme of the weekend centred on the vulnerability of the Fenland area — its exposure to rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and the pressures on a highly industrialised agricultural landscape. New Bedford River, Sutton Gault The Fenland Landscape When I began this project, I had no specific objective in mind. I was simply drawn to the u

Many artists will tell you that painting is a constant struggle — a battle with materials and ideas. To make paint say what you want to communicate is a never-ending challenge; it requires commitment, resolution, and self-belief, and paradoxically, a measure of delusional thinking. The tortured artist, working against impossible odds to release an inner creative spirit, is the stuff of folk legend. If the objective of personal expression could be readily achieved, a single pa

Cambridge Envisaged was a group exhibition held at Michaelhouse Café, Cambridge, bringing together three artists — Peter Corr, Paul Janssens, and Caroline Forward — each responding to the city from a distinct perspective. The exhibition explored Cambridge through its architecture, history, and street life, presenting diverse approaches to a shared subject. The Work The series of paintings I contributed to this exhibition are richly textured and glazed abstractions. They are n

The Edinburgh Art Fair is one of Scotland's most significant annual celebrations of contemporary art, bringing together galleries, collectors, and artists from across the UK and beyond. Held at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, the fair offers an exceptional opportunity to encounter a wide range of original works in an accessible and welcoming setting. The Exhibition In November 2022 I exhibited new work at the Edinburgh Art Fair. The fair ran from 18th to 20th November at the Edi

Cold wax landscape painting techniques

The surface of a cold wax painting is never passive. This post explores how I approach the building and reworking of a painted surface — the layering, the scraping back, the moments of decision — and what it means for a painting to feel alive rather than resolved.

I have been painting landscapes for over fifty years, working primarily in oil and cold wax. My practice is rooted in the Cambridgeshire landscape — its flatness, its particular quality of light, the way the horizon holds everything in a kind of suspension. This is a brief introduction to the work and the thinking behind it.

The more I paint images of the forest, the more I see trees as a cipher — a kind of encoding, a representation of something else. This painting finally declared itself to me after a few weeks of alternately applying, layering, and removing pigment. 'Natural Theatre' 120 x 100 x 4 cm Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas Painting as Excavation This is painting as extrusion or excavation — not unlike a sculptor releasing a figure embedded in a marble block, or an archaeologist revealing an

Cold wax is not simply a material — it is a way of working. This post describes what cold wax medium is, how it behaves in combination with oil paint, and why its particular qualities — resistance, translucency, the way it holds a mark — have made it central to my practice over many years.

This can't possibly be one of my paintings — or so you might think. Where is the impasto, the heavy texture and mark-making, the lively handling of paint that characterises my usual way of working? This was, in fact, my style some two decades ago. Whilst clearing a working space in my garage recently, I came across a large MDF board sandwiched between a couple of old doors and dismantled bunk beds. It was covered in dust and cobwebs, and I thought it might serve as a makeshif

Mike Tyson's remark has always struck me as unexpectedly apt for painting. You can plan a surface, intend a particular quality of light, work toward a specific resolution — and then the painting refuses. What happens next is where the real work begins.

I was recently contacted by a book publisher looking for a suitable image for the front cover of a new title. He was searching for something dark and mysterious to represent the Fenlands — and had come across my photography project completed during the lockdown period. 'Cambridgeshire Fenlands' Photography by: Peter Corr The Fenland Photography Project Followers of this blog may recall the project I completed during lockdown: a series of black and white photographs of the Cam

I have always considered Cubism to be the key movement in the development of contemporary art — the ultimate catalyst, a clean break with tradition and a revolutionary way of seeing, interpreting, and reconstructing the material world through painting. After Cubism, there could be no return to the false comforts and certainties of representational painting. It fatally undermined conventional ways of recording what we see. For the first time, the supremacy of Renaissance persp

I always return to the forest as a subject for painting. It is a source of limitless fascination and inspiration. I create these forest paintings primarily from memory. I do have photographs taken at various locations, but I rarely use them to complete a painting. They may offer a starting point, a way of seeing, or a particular quality of light — but ultimately a painting has to work on its own terms. Effective paintings have a convincing internal character and consistency.

This work represents something of a departure. It is a graphic rendering of a winter tree, with a pronounced emphasis on drawing and linear qualities — a shift from the more atmospheric landscape work that typically occupies my practice. The painting uses oil, cold wax, bitumen, pumice stone powder, and enamel on an 80 × 80 cm canvas. 'The Dream of a Golden Tree' Oil, Cold Wax, bitumen, pumice stone, enamel on 80 x 80 cm Canvas Materials and Process The general process is re

The Fenlands of Britain exist in an imaginary space — out of time and out of step with an increasingly homogenised and utilitarian world. They are made up of woodlands, wet grasslands, marsh, bogs, meadows, and shallow ponds, teeming with life. There is a constant visual interplay between grasses, reeds, and water; between bramble, branches, and sky. Slow-moving rivers, lodes, and streams are seen through a tracery of golden arches and erratic parabolas. A rhythmic dance of c

In May 2022 I exhibited new paintings at the Hampstead Art Fair with Linton59. The setting — on the edge of Hampstead Heath — felt appropriate for work rooted in landscape. This post documents the paintings shown and the context of the exhibition.

'Fenland' — A Photography Book 'Fenland' is a photography book documenting the Cambridgeshire Fenland landscape — a body of work made over several years, with the majority of the photographs taken during the winter of 2020/21. The book brings together black and white images of the Fenland's characteristic topography: dykes and rivers, tilted telegraph poles, uneven roads disappearing into the distance, and the isolated farmhouses and farm buildings that punctuate the flat ter

After several years of working with oil and cold wax, I have come to understand the medium less as a set of techniques and more as a set of conditions. This post reflects on what those conditions are, and how they have shaped the way I think about painting.