Alexander Heaton interview

Inspired by his love of the mountains, climbing and snowboarding, Alexander Heaton has devoted himself to painting exceptional interpretations of high altitude environments. Alex regularly travels to some of the world's most challenging peaks, sometimes risking life and limb, to find inspiration for his next canvas.

HUCK caught up with Alex to talk about the dangerous places his art takes him and why he will never compromise when it comes to making sure his work reflects his own personal experiences.

HUCK: What have you been up to recently?
Alex: This April, I was ski touring with the acclaimed mountain guide Robin Beadle to research new areas for my artwork. Routes and peaks included the Matterhorn from the Simplon Pass, The Allalinhorn, The Alphubel and one of the steeper, exposed routes of the Vallée Blanche.

Could you tell us a little about yourself?
I was born in Middlesbrough and graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2005. I exhibit frequently in London and was shortlisted for the Marmite Painting Prize in 2008. My work can be found in collections across the UK and in the Middle East and recently featured in the Miami Art Fair.

Where do you get inspiration for your mountain landscapes?
I’m a keen climber, skier and snowboarder and profess an unconditional love for the mountains and the outdoors. I visited the Alps in Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia from a young age. During these trips, I fell in love with the light, the forms of the mountains and just walking in them. I also love the stories, myths, histories and traditions associated with the places I stayed in.

Could you describe your painting technique?
I use a technique similar to that used by the makers of Hollywood backdrop paintings. These untextured canvases provided the most convincing background for the action taking place before them. In this way, my paintings may be understood as a demonstration of their own failure to depict what they try to. Mountains offer at once an escape and escapism. Without denying the possibility of the presence of a darker side lurking just beneath or beyond the surface, my paintings offer temporary relief from our fractured existence.

Who or what inspires you creatively?
What I noticed whilst in the Alps and Himalayas was the quality of the light in the rarefied atmosphere. This feeling is something I wish to communicate on canvas to my viewers. The particular language of seracs, arêtes, corniced ridges and rime ice is what I have tried to depict in my new work. I feel more able to truthfully reflect upon my experiences once back in the studio. The desire to capture in oil the transience of glaciers, as basically water trapped in a temporary creative state like a grand sculptor of rock is what my current work is preoccupied with and dichotomises.

How did you get into painting mountains?
After college, I started to read many of my father’s books on mountaineering. What struck me most as a person who does judge a book by its cover was the quality of images within these heroic accounts. With this in mind, I collected and catalogued various pictures from these books to create my own landscapes, sometimes splicing together images in collage then painting them. However, these were stolen moments of other people’s expeditions and memories not my own. This approach soon became not enough for me as a painter to look through other people’s eyes. I needed to actually see what I was trying to experience through pictures. I became obsessed with travelling as often as I could afford throughout the Alps in summer and winter backpacking or ski touring and soloing easy routes in the Salzkammergut and northern limestone Alps of Bavaria.

What has been the most interesting experience of these adventures?
Nearly being dragged in a deep gaping crevasse on the Grossvenedigger two years ago woke me up to the inherent reality and dangers of where these lofty painters’ ideals were taking me. This informed an uneasy juxtaposing of the sublime and the lurking sinister threat that such places invoke. The wonderful contradiction of walking a knife edge ridge with death a breath away and immense beauty in front is what my work is involved with now.

Do you have any formal training?
I studied painting firstly in Middlesbrough at Cleveland College of Art and Design, then in 2002 I went to London to study at Central Saint Martins School of Art on a BA course in Fine Art. Nowadays in the UK, the techniques and methods of painting are not really taught as they once were in the old academy system so to some extent, my painting skills were self taught.

What are you currently working on?
My website will launched this month. I will be working on doing a large commission in Verbier next, some kind of dream like winter wonderland night scene. I will also be doing a commission in Morocco next month. I hope to be able to combine that work with a trip to climb Mt Toubkal.

Subscribe to HUCK for six issues
Only £20 (UK) / £43 (EU) / £58 (Rest of the World).