Max Mosscrop

               

                 

Can you briefly describe what you do?

I make things, mainly paintings that hang on the wall, but also objects, usually painted, which don't. And I teach. For the last ten years I've had a studio in Brixton, in South London, but I’m in the process of moving to Camberwell so everything is in boxes while I get the next place sorted.

What drives you to make work?

I’ve no idea. But no one tells me what to do, I can do it while listening to music, and I've got a comfortable chair to sit in to look at what I've done. At the moment I'm missing it because everything is in boxes.

Can you tell me something of your day-to-day working practices?

I work mainly with watercolour on gesso panels or paper. I make the panels to paint on, from wood, mdf and gesso, which is time consuming and messy. I also make structures to support the panels that don't go on the wall. I’m not sure where painting ends and everything else begins, but I spend more time getting ready, clearing up, and working out what to do with what I've done, than I do actually painting.

How long have you been working in that way?

About five years. Before that I was working with a broader range of media, including photography and video. I wanted to simplify my practice. 

Which artists have had the greatest effect on your work?

As a child I was a big fan of George Stubbs. We used to go to the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, which owns A Horse Frightened by a Lion, and to Manchester City Art Gallery, which has Cheetah and Stag with Two Indians. I had a print of the Manchester painting on my bedroom wall, mounted on hardboard and covered in transparent sticky-backed plastic! These days I think I’m more influenced by a small group of friends than by any famous names.

What, outside visual art, informs your practice?

"Love is A Highway", the title of my 2010 solo show at Five Years Gallery, came from miss-hearing the lyric in a song by Kimya Dawson.

How would you like people to engage with your work?

By buying it?

Have you seen anything recently that has made an impression?

I enjoyed George Kuchar’s films about the weather in the Berlin Bienalle last year. And Norbert Prangenburg’s paintings at Ancient and Modern.

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon?

My new studio, when I finally get moved in, has a great view of the railway tracks.