Watercolour artist Alan Reed paints the Toon

Watercolour artist Alan Reed paints the Toon

Posted: 16 Sep 2009

Painting the Toon red

One of the region’s most popular watercolour artists talks about his work, his influences – and his love of the Toon

An extraordinary childhood experience – you might even call it an epiphany – set the course of North East artist Alan Reed’s life in more ways than one.
 The roots of his work, his strong family ethic and his Christian faith could all be traced to this early memory.
 It happened when his grandfather, a keen amateur artist, had returned home from hospital to recuperate following a heart attack and decided to do a painting of Jesus.  Alan, then aged four, went to visit and remembers his grandfather lying in bed with the painting on his lap. It was the last time he would see him. He died that same night.
 ‘That image has remained with me ever since. I often think about it when people ask me how I first became interested in art.’ he says. ‘And my father still has the painting.’
 Not that his grandfather was his sole influence: Alan’s father Kenneth is also a painter, so clearly artistic talent runs deep in the Reed family blood.
 ‘Obviously I grew up around paintings so it was always a part of my life, but I remember the moment when I knew this is what I would do when I grew up,’ says Alan.
 ‘I was 15, I had discovered watercolours and I realised that I just loved this medium. The way you could have one wash of colour, put it on top of another and create a third colour – it just gave me such pleasure in a way that other mediums didn’t.
 ‘People say that watercolour is one of the hardest techniques to master and I suppose that’s true, simply because it’s not as forgiving as other mediums. With oils, acrylic or gouache you can mess up but cover up where you’ve gone wrong. With watercolour you can always see the mistake so you have to start again.’
 The medium tends to have something of a chocolate-box image, with pretty, idealised country village scenes and idyllic rural landscapes the typical subject matter.
 Alan, on the other hand, is just as fascinated by how watercolour can be used to depict something much more rugged and urban.
 His works of street scenes in Newcastle and hordes of members of the city’s football fans heading for St James’ Park – complete with replica shirts – show how inspiration can come from unexpected sources.
 ‘Your best painting comes from what you care about, I suppose, and I was very passionate about Newcastle United and a paid-up member of the Toon Army,’ says Alan.
 ‘At one time I had a place in Eldon Gardens in Newcastle and I loved to watch the crowds walking to the ground on match day.
 ‘My original Toon Army painting was sold before I had finished it. One of my customers was a Newcastle fan who lived in Kent and he decided he had to have it while I was still working on it.
 ‘I also enjoy painting street life. You get this mixture of the feel of commerce with shops all around but also of beautiful buildings and people interacting. That really intrigues me.
 ‘And I have always enjoyed painting bridges and water so the bridges over the Tyne are particular favourites of mine.’
 Newcastle’s Grey Street is one of Alan’s most popular subjects with customers, especially the view with the Theatre Royal in the snow featuring one of his grand-daughters in a red coat. Scenes of Durham, Lindisfarne and Northumberland castles are also amongst his extensive portfolio which he has amassed over three decades of painting.
But the North East is not his only source of inspiration – far from it. A long-time devotee of Italy (thanks to his wife Susan who used to live there), Alan often travels there and this has led to a fine set of works from that country. The USA and the west coast of Scotland also feature widely in his work.
And the Middle East is yet another area where Alan has concentrated his artistic attention, thanks to an out-of-the-blue commission from the Sultan of Oman.
It came about when an agent asked him to quote for a set of paintings of Omani scenes for the sultan.
‘I thought he was pulling my leg, but I put in a quote and thought nothing more about it,’ says Alan.
‘Then a year later, totally unexpectedly, I got the commission to paint some scenes (which are now housed in a government building there). I did them from photographs and that whetted my appetite to go to Oman and do my own sketches.’
Commissions such as this are a welcome boost to any artist – a profession which, by its nature, can prove very up and down from a financial perspective.
‘A lot of artists struggle because they don’t feel comfortable going out into the marketplace, but it has to be done,’ says Alan.
 ‘But I was just thinking this morning – if money was no object what would I be doing? And I realised I’d be doing exactly the same, only with a PA and an accountant on the payroll!’
Born near Corbridge, Alan is still a resident of Northumberland. He lives in Ponteland and works from his home which has been recently transformed to include a new attic studio which gives him more light and space in which to be creative. On the ground floor is the gallery space which allows customers to visualise what the paintings might look like in their own home.
He occasionally collaborates with, and shows work of, other creative people in the region including his father Kenneth, Northumberland artist Mary Ann Rogers and North East photographer Stephen Landles.
Special events such as art tours and specialist fairs – the recent NewcastleGateshead Artfair at the Sage being a case in point – can also be valuable outlets both to display and sell his works.
And the internet provides another valuable window to the world, with Alan’s website providing customers from far and wide.
‘I have people ordering from all over the place,’ he says. ‘One of the most recent was someone working in Egypt who looked at the site and ended up spending £6,000. And another time a guy rang up who was working on a rig in the middle of the Caspian Sea and he ordered a print of one of my Scottish scenes.
‘I don’t know what effect the credit crunch will have on my type of business, but if anything I think it will make people like myself more creative.
‘It would be very easy for me to slip into a tried-and-tested formula of doing the Tyne bridges and Grey Street, but you have to think beyond past successes and be more inventive and challenge yourself.
‘Having said that, though, when I go to people’s houses and see some of my old works on the wall it’s a lovely feeling – like meeting an old friend again.’

The making of an artist
Although it’s a given that most artists are born, not made, their talent still has to be developed.
 Alan followed up his career decision as a 15-year-old with a proper grounding, learning the tools of his trade at art college in Newcastle.
 His course didn’t even touch on watercolours in his first year so he dabbled with in other mediums  – only to return to his first love.
 His tutors were so impressed with his paintings that they even bought some of his work while he was still a student.
 Meanwhile his father continued to be an important influence, as were established international artists including the American Winslow Homer who had lived in Cullercoats (‘an absolute expert’, says Alan), Sir William Russell Flint (‘great landscapes’), Rowland Hilder (‘my hero at college and a master of cityscapes’) and John Singer Sargent.
 An additional and crucial – if less tangible – influence has been his strong Christian faith which, though not a direct factor in his choice of subjects, illuminates his work.
 ‘One thing that is important to me is capturing light and life and these are all part of the beauty of God’s creation,’ says Alan.
 ‘Even my paintings of cities – which are built by man – reflect this.’
 His wife Susan is an equally committed Christian, having experienced a dramatic conversion to the faith during a visit to St Mark’s Church in Venice.
 And the bonds between the pair were strengthened further almost eight years ago when Susan desperately needed a kidney transplant.
 Her mother volunteered to be a donor but doctors discovered that Alan’s own kidneys were a better match so he donated one of his.
 ‘Every year on the anniversary of the operation we go out to celebrate,’ says Alan.
 ‘It never occurred to me not to donate a kidney. Some people have told me they would not have done what I did but I welcomed the opportunity to be able to give Susan a better quality of life.’

Visitors are welcome, generally by appointment, to Alan’s gallery and studio at 17 Cheviot View, Ponteland.  Please call 01661 871800 to check opening times as Alan can often be working away on location.
You can also view and buy samples of his work from his website: http://www.alanreed.com/