The work of two artist friends, Chris Griffin and Anthony Evans, is brought together in an exhibition which opens today. They tell Jenny White about their shared love of memory, imagination and colour

HAVING worked at the same artists’ co-operative in Cardiff for many years, Chris Griffin and Anthony Evans are well acquainted with each other’s work.

Superficially their styles are very different; Griffin paints partially abstracted landscapes and still life, while Evans’ work is more line-driven and narrative, reflecting his background as a professional illustrator.

Explaining his choice of work for this latest show, Evans says: “I just wanted to give the gallery 25 different stories; my work is largely based on landscape and on narratives within that landscape.”

Often his paintings tell the tale of his own exploration of an area. Defying topographical conventions, he re-arranges key features of a landscape to communicate his memories and feelings about it.

“I tend to think of my work as memory maps. Although I make sketches and take photos, I prefer to draw from memory, working my way through a painting by remembering being there. Every house for me has that enchantment of place. To describe that magic it’s often easier to use symbols as you would on a map.”

Birds – especially crows – make frequent appearances, often to evoke his favourite times of day.

“I find it magical when you can see both the sun and the moon in the sky in the early morning or in the late evening when you just see the stars appearing.

“I tend to associate that time, and the sound of crows nesting, with my childhood: I grew up in Crosshands but spent a lot of time visiting my grandparents on a farm down in Cardiganshire.”

Working mostly in acrylic, Evans builds up his pictures in layers and washes, typically adding a blue wash over his initial painting to darken it, and then picking out areas of light.

“I like the idea of objects casting shadows.

“The paintings reach a stage where they’re very dark and then I have to think about where the light is.”

Griffin also works in fine layers of acrylic paint, often scraping it back between additions. It’s just one of many underlying similarities between the two artists’ work. Like Evans, he favours rich colours, and these are dictated not by nature but by his own feelings and memories of a place.

“They’re not colours that I saw, they are colours I felt. When choosing the colours I’m looking at the needs of the painting rather than its accuracy to reality,” he explains.

This approach means that, like Evans, he needs to limit the amount of time he spends in front of the actual subject.

“Sometimes if I’m out too much and in front of the landscape for a long period it’s a little bit intimidating; the more I look at it the more I’m inclined to make the painting look like it.

“What I want is freedom, and I want to borrow things from the mountains and from the landscape to help me make my compositions.

“I hope the finished paintings will be a balance of my expression and what I’ve seen. In other words, I don’t give up myself completely to the landscape.

“My purpose is to make exciting paintings and the landscape helps me to do that.”

He employs a similar approach when making still life paintings, in which composition and colour take precedence over literal depiction.

“I don’t set up a table and draw it as it is, I just take the concept of a table with objects on it and that allows me a certain freedom.

“Ultimately, I want to enjoy painting.

“The subject is important but not vitally important; I’ll latch onto something that gives me the freedom I need, and still life painting – although I detested it at one time – has given me that.”

His pursuit of freedom means that his style and choice of subject matter are always evolving – most recently to include fluid charcoal drawings of the Welsh landscape.

“The drawings are part of an ongoing investigation; my work has been quite tight and I’m trying to move away from that if I can,” he explains.

This spirit of ongoing change and experimentation is one of the strongest connections between the two artists’ work.

From one exhibition to the next, both preserve the ability to surprise the viewer, taking off in new directions by responding to changes in the world around them and in their inner, creative worlds.

Evans speaks for both of them when he says: “I don’t want to be stamped as doing one kind of painting. I like the diversity and the change, I wouldn’t want to just tell one story.”

The exhibition is at Fountain Fine Art, Llandeilo, from 14 January to February 4 2012