Will Barras
It is said that his career was born out of the doodlings that kept him sane during his call centre days…
One thing that is for certain is no-one but paints or draws quite like Will Barras.
We first met Will in a rather plush flat in the depths of Shoreditch, East London. It turned out to be his flat. He was kneeling in front of a ramshackle canvas set-up surrounded by spray cans, fatcaps, brushes, paint pots and all sorts of other hyper colour debris. On first view the painting he was working on was nothing more than an abstract combination of psychedelic colours and at that early stage we had absolutely no idea what to make of it.
By the same time the next day the painting was all but finished.The abstractions had been refined and compositions had appeared; characters had taken up residence in-and-among the waves of colour and all that once seemed so up-in-the-air had settled wonderfully across the canvas.
These abstract beginnings are the feature we admire most about Barras’ work. The fact that his paintings so often marry chaos with order is testament to his vision. In this sense Barras is a sculptor; carving out figures and scenarios from the experiments which so often make up the foundations of his work.
Describing his style is an almighty challenge as there are so many visual and contextual elements at play, however, if you can do your best to visualise a 1950’s-fashion-fueled-rainbow-spectrum-driven-Blade-Runner-cityscape, peppered with moments of life articulated with great elegance and fluidity, you will probably be slightly closer to visualising the aesthetic that makes up one side of his output.
In and amongst the colourways is an astuteness and technical poise that only the finest artists possess and even though Barras’ process seems rooted in disorder, his finished product suggests that he is always in control of what the end result will be.
How do you go about starting a painting?
There are a few different ways, some are more planned than others. Generally though, I start by making some kind of abstract composition or some combination of rough texture and form, which then sort of gets chiseled and worked into a finished painting. I usually start with a half-formed idea which I work out as I go. Like the brushstrokes are helping me create a story.
What degree of experimentation is there running through your work?
I’m never totally sure of this. There is so much to learn with painting; from how you render something, to lighting, form, composition. It can be pushed in so many directions from total abstraction to super realism and I’m not good enough to do that yet. Then again, its coming out of my head so really anything goes. It’s like learning to play an instrument you invented in a key which doesn’t exist - I’m still learning.
I hear the story that you first got into drawing by doodling at a telesales office job pretty often. Is there truth in this tale or do the roots of your love for drawing go deeper than that?
“I loved to draw when i was a kid, but I rediscovered it in the call centre. It was driven by total boredom and sitting next to Mr Jago.”
What is the deal with the elephant technique?
“You would have to ask Ric Blackshaw about that as he came up with it. I think maybe it means, ‘we will get there in the end, just really slowly, so don’t forget about us…”
What dominates your artistic drive? What thought processes do you consider when approaching a blank canvas?
“I have a mental list of ideas which I delve into, but oddly I don’t usually end up doing whats on the list.”
Tell us about your biggest inspirations. Do you take inspiration from sources other than the illustration or street art scene?
“I don’t take much inspiration from street art, but there are a few artists who I really like and I’ve surely been influenced by them, like Mr Jago and Adam Neate. There is so much great art around, it is mind blowing really. I like the comic artist Moebius but my favourite painting is Hunters in the Snow by Peter Bruegel.”
What does the future hold for Will Barras?
“I have got a new solo show coming, getting married in June, going to Gambia in October, a show with No New Enemies next year and lots and lots of half-baked ideas and promises unfulfilled…..”
