The origins of man, Megalithic monuments, ancient civilisations, shamanism, psychedelia, cultural truth, scepticism and spiritualism are all tributaries into Kyle’s work. That’s some eclectic inspiration for an emerging artist and just one of the reasons why we can’t wait to see more. His latest work looks great and has stories to tell – take your pick! Here’s what Kyle had to say to us:
Art Pistol (AP): What’s the first thing you can remember painting?
Kyle: A picture of a boat with a Highland backdrop and I remember getting into the waves. However it is the process I remember most, using those short cylindrical compressed powdered paint blocks in groups of six. As it was primary school and many brushes used them, craters would form and eventually you could get to the smooth white plastic.
AP: When did you first realise you were an artist?
Kyle: As a child I loved drawing planes and cartoon characters yet this didn’t indicate the artist’s path. When I was 16 I started to wield the paint brush in a new way, I made weird portraits and this unlocked a calling of sorts to ride and channel creative energy. As time has moved on I’ve observed that ‘what it means to be an artist’ has gained greater depths, becoming personally abstracted into a spiritual journey and cultivation of an expansive imagination.
AP: How would you describe your art to someone that has never seen it before?
Kyle: Yellow varnish, green lines that go bizzzz, alchemical black gloss, linear work describing visionary events, symmetrical organic energy patterns, technical abstract isometric cube space ships, stone circles with hyper-dimensional portals, real skeletons covered in drawings, bearded beings, funny faces and third eyes.
I suppose my work has a strong drawn element which often fuses psychedelic patterns with more considered compositions. Having lived in Taiwan and more recently Hong Kong an Asian impression can clearly be seen, especially certain aesthetics from Chinese landscape. There is a conceptual skeleton that all my work now fits within called the ‘Meiklian Project’. It’s a projected prehistory about druid like Neanderthals, the ‘Meiklians’ who made the stone circles in North East after a space ship altered their reality.
AP: Is your work on any famous person’s wall?
Kyle: Not yet.
AP: If you had the opportunity to change something in the art industry what would it be?
Kyle: I think that there is a large problem for artists being created by artists being created. By that I mean universities and art schools pumping out thousands of artists each year. The system, which of course I am part of is clogging a lot of opportunities up. However, in another view maybe our spherical space ship needs these artists to keep a removed and considered perspective on what their fellow monkeys are doing?
AP: Do you have any other interests or talents that you’d like to share?
Kyle: I like wandering around in Scottish nature, trying to get lost or finding awesome beauty. When I go home I like to go to ancient sites and listen to my reflections upon them. I like looking at pictures and reading books which make me inspired. I have enjoyed Asia with my girlfriend and specifically Taiwan, we loved the people, drove the mountains and swam around reefs. I love Taiwanese mangos and Vietnamese food. I like messing around in virtual reality with my friends. I draw with my friend as part of ‘Irvine and Noble’, we scale the absurd within our pictures and revel in our unchecked freedom.
AP: Describe yourself in 3 words, one has to be a colour?
Kyle: Red, eccentric and open.
AP: Tell us your perfect scenario for painting.
Kyle: Being undisturbed and riding a wave of creative energy. Listening to Tool, Solar Fields, Shpongle or T.Mckenna and drinking Taiwanese tea. Having a large amount a patience that day is also good.
AP: If you weren’t an artist you’d be..?
Kyle: Im wandering that myself right now… I have a romanticised view of learning wood craft etc but back when friends left school to do that I was still too young. I still am a Peter Pan I think. I like making images so maybe something to do with graphics or being part of a games design team making virtual worlds. Perhaps these will happen or maybe not. I would enjoy the role of a tutor in an art school but the system seems too full. In Hong Kong I taught art to children and that was pretty rewarding. In another culture perhaps I could have been a shaman or in another time a spaceman, but within my work I’m already a bit of both!
AP: Do you have any advice for artists just starting out?
Kyle: Listen to music and paint or draw what it makes you feel. Use and explore the experimental and suggestive techniques of the Surrealists, such as decalcomania and automatic drawing. Have a sketchbook and take time to draw things from reality… occasionally. Attempt to connect to a deeper more timeless part of yourself through your art practice and make a strong connection to that part of you. Embrace spontaneity and the joys of ‘the beginning’.
AP: And finally, what are you working on just now?
Kyle: I’m working on larger works that are developing the Meiklian perception of reality. Mountains with eyes, churning landscapes and black portal ellipses.
