Art Attack was one of my favourite TV shows growing up and I watched avidly each week to see if there were any ideas I could somehow weave into my GCSE art work. You could imagine my delight when I was offered the chance to interview Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan to find out what he's been up to since the show finished and why we'll have the chance to meet him in person in Eastbourne next month as he visits Viewpoint Art Gallery, 38 South Street to launch his new series of paintings, Hope Street...So Neil, you’re coming to Eastbourne on Friday 9th December to Viewpoint Art Gallery for the Little Christmas event – are you excited about your visit to Eastbourne?
I actually come down to Eastbourne an awful lot. My son’s at the College in his final year and my daughter went there too so I’m actually a regular! I know Eastbourne and I know Prezzo very well as I meet my son there for lunch!
And am I excited? Yes! I love it in Eastbourne, especially the twinkling lights on the seafront!
Tell us about Hope Street and how it came about…After 17 years of Art Attack, 20 series, 500 shows and 2,000 drawings of dogs, cats, sharks, footballs etc. I thought enough is enough. I’d said everything I had to say on telly and wanted to do something for myself. This is actually my very first fine art collection, my first grown up art. I had a blank canvas and I could do whatever I wanted.
With working in kids’ TV I decided to look at my own childhood and take a trip down memory lane as I’m very into nostalgia. I decided to paint childhood.
The paintings have two characters and I’m asked is it me? The answer is it’s whoever you want it to be. There are no faces; it’s from angles where you can’t see the face so it’s for you to decide. It depends on who you are and if you’ve had that memory yourself. I wanted to touch people’s imagination and tweak a reminder in them.
I felt when I was a kid there was a lot more hope and things were much simpler. So Hope Street is a state of mind, it’s not a place. I lived in an era when to me it was always summer, no one ever died, there was no divorce. I’m sure that wasn’t the actual case but to me, things were a lot simpler. You could climb a tree or have a conker fight without being sued.
Though, coincidentally I actually went to school on Hope Street. My school was on Hope Street but that’s just a coincidence!
The Hope Street collection is a nice place to be.
What is your favourite piece in Hope Street & why?
Ooh that’s a difficult one! Well as you know at the moment I’m touring galleries and although I get asked that, when I meet people I like to ask them what their favourite is and do my own market research!
I have a relationship with every single one of the paintings in the collection. I painted them very quickly because I was using acrylic, which is a quick drying medium so I had to work quickly.
Painting the collection was a passionate experience. I see different things in each picture and can’t pick a favourite. There are some I absolutely love but I hate one bit in it!
They are all labours of love. It took five months to do the whole collection, including research. I went back to Liverpool where I grew up; in fact, my mum still lives there, and took a week to wander round. I wanted the pictures to show situations I used to be in.
And art isn’t your only passion is it? Tell us about your band?
No, my first love was music! Music is what flows through my veins. Growing up in Liverpool, you either wanted to be a footballer or a popstar and I wanted to do both! But at the age of 14, I discovered the two g’s – guitars and girls and I pursued both!
I was in a band and we won the first ever Battle of the Bands in the UK, which I suppose in the old days was like the X Factor is now. We got a record deal and were playing in front of 20,000 people in huge American stadiums. But we were very young and got very ripped off. We were involved in a legal battle for two years and that’s when I went into telly.
But to cut a long story short, all of the band members have recently celebrated a big birthday! I’m not going to tell you what birthday it is but I’m sure you can work it out! We got back together for fun but it turned serious and we’ve made an album and in between the gallery tours, I’m on tour with the band!
The band’s called Marseille so if you fancy taking a look at the Art Attack guy with longer hair and wearing leather trousers then come along! Our tour dates are on our website at http://www.marseilleonline.co.uk/.
But one of the reasons for doing Hope Street is because I used to always get asked can I really draw or paint? You know if there was another guy doing it all then why didn’t they put him on the telly? So Hope Street proves yes, I can do it and people can go on the website and judge for themselves.
So that's it for the first half of our interview but come back later this week when we'll post the rest and let you in on Neil's favourite ever Art Attack as well as what he'd most like for Christmas!
Emma
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