This post sets out the material composition of the cold wax medium I use — the beeswax, damar resin, and solvent — and describes how these elements behave during and after painting. It is intended as a reference for those who want to understand the physical basis of the work.

In October 2024 I gave a presentation and live painting demonstration to the Isle of Ely Art Society. The event was held at the Methodist Church, Chapel Street, Ely, and focused on my working process with oil and cold wax medium. 'The First Temple' 130 x 100 x 4 cm on canvas The Demonstration The session centred on the layered approach that characterises my practice — the use of brayers, palette knives, and unconventional tools to build up and rework the painted surface. Cold

Gold enamel and cold wax medium

Using cold wax medium with oil paint to create a forest

The question I am asked most often is how oil paint and cold wax work together. This post draws on my current studio practice to describe the relationship between the two materials — how they interact, how I mix and apply them, and what the medium makes possible that oil alone does not.

This large-scale painting was developed over an extended period in the studio, its surface built up through successive layers of oil and cold wax medium. The title refers both to the colour — a deep, saturated green that dominates the composition — and to the sense of enclosure that the vertical forms of the trees create: a vault of branches and foliage that shelters and contains. Surface and Process The work was made using a variety of tools — palette knives, rollers, and pr

This is the work currently in the studio. I have decided to produce a series of paintings based on the VolksPark in Berlin

I returned to the Edinburgh Art Fair in November 2023, showing a selection of forest paintings with Linton 59. Edinburgh is always a serious context for contemporary work — the audience is engaged and the standard of exhibiting galleries is high.

Artists are often asked this question — it is typically the first and frequently the last. The conventional answer is that the hours spent directly on the painting might add up to a few days, weeks, or perhaps a month or two. The artist would then wisely note that, in reality, the piece in question represents the accumulated knowledge and experience of a lifetime. Both answers are true, and neither is complete. Painting of a Forest by Peter Corr 'The Lie of The Land' The Infl

In June and July 2023 I held a solo exhibition of paintings in Linton, Cambridgeshire. The show brought together a selection of recent work in oil and cold wax, spanning a range of scales and exploring the recurring themes of my practice: the forest, the fenland, the quality of northern light, and the tension between representation and abstraction. The Work The paintings in this exhibition were developed through the layered process that characterises my approach to oil and co

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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