JUSTIN HAWKES - AN OBITUARY
Intense by Justin Hawkes
Justin Hawkes was a painter and conservationist ‘same guy’ as the strap-line for a feature about his work I published in The Independent The snappy summary always amused him hugely.
Justin was buried from the Church of SS Peter and Paul in Fen Drayton. Quirkily apposite - it has not one but two massive patrons - Justin’s artistic life was always a dichotomy. What was a constant was his personality, his delight in jazz piano ( knocking out abstract extempore pieces as our parties ) and his dedication to art.
Below is an interview with Justin before a delightful show:
“Few painters acheive the wow factor - and even fewer in the sometime genteel world of watercolour. To capture the kind of colour intensity Justin Hawkes achieves, needs a lifetime’s worth of mastery over his technique. He is an artist’s artist, a Kandinsky for our time and place. Yet his profound knowledge of the philosophy of art he wears lightly. Talking about his work, Justin Hawkes conjures a world of perception - a unity with artists of the modernistic past and a vision for his own kind of expression for the future. Here he is in full flow. Accomplished jazz pianist, meticulous restoration expert and contempoary creative artist - he draws on all this to present some of the most arresting art around today.
“The fluid motion in watercolour I use to work out a kind of harmony. In music I enjoy what I like to call the one dimension of time. I wish to emulate this insomuch as I try to achieve clarity of dimensions in painting. As an example I do not introduce further texture than that provided by the surface,developing flat painting for the unrestricted movement of water.
“With this process,using a set of translucent tones and shades, I find a way to relate the various passages to each other. I wish 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 and other aspects of compositions. I wish to do something like this in painting. To give the appearances of production of ease. The feeling of effortlessness offers a step into the illusion of painting."
But this fascinating and kind man has gone from us. Last seen in the cellars of The Cambridge Modern Jazz Club, in his glamorous white tuxedo , he stayed the charming man about town to the last.
Justin Hawkes’ watercolours have featured in the Royal Watercolour Society open. and appeared many times for the Royal Society of British Artists annual exhibition. His other work - large scale acrylic canvases are the prize possessions of anyone who owns them..
