Justin Hawkes: Composition 5

Justin Hawkes was born in 1955 and is a painter and conservator. His own works are richly coloured abstracts with landscape allusions.

He studied at Cambridge Anglia Polytechnic, 1974-76 and in Byam Shaw Art School in 1976 –80, where his teachers included Sir Frank Bowling and Simon Willis. In his second year he gained the Graham Hamilton Drawing Award.

After leaving art school he undertook an apprenticeship as a painting conservator with Judy Blofeld, a former student of Helmut Ruhemann and became a visiting teacher to art schools.  Justin says "using watercolours I am surprised and pleased by the versatility I can achieve using immersion techniques—finding that repeating immersions achieves the ‘flow’ that I am looking for.”

"The fluid motion in watercolour I use to work out a kind of harmony with a set of translucent tones and shades, I find a way to relate the various passages to each other  wishing to see a clear flow between each section, as if I were a composer with a grasp of flow of cords and silences between. I develop my approach and style with this in mind. I recall a jazz tutor talking about the desire for the sound of effortlessness in improvising. I  like to give the appearance of production of ease. The feeling of effortlessness offers a step into the illusion of painting.”

Justin's watercolours have been accepted several times for the Royal Watercolour Society open. He has been accepted three times for the Royal Society of British Artists annual exhibition. As a member of SEAW he has enjoyed two awards -The RWS Cup and The St Cuthbert's award.