It’s been two or three years now that I’ve been bumping into Adam Ralston around Manchester City Centre. You may have seen him, his easel and paint spattered clothes. During those years I’ve known him mainly for plein air work – streetscapes completed in the open air come rain or shine. A technique pioneered by John Constable in the early 19th century as an alternative to traditional studio painting and which, by the middle of that century, became fundamental to impressionism. 

 

But before plein air painting Adam found his techniques through painting still life subjects. And, it has to be said, even the most assiduous plein air painter can’t brave the extremes of weather. It’s not that he’s returned to still life painting, it’s that his focus has now turned at least a little to more expansive subjects to paint. “When I started I’d paint just a single item like a lemon or tube of oil paint. It’s the observational aspect of doing them that excites me most.” That’s the same philosophy in which he completes landscape work. I’ve watched him paint, then I’ve disappeared for a couple of hours and a scene has appeared out of thousands of brush strokes, layering and observing until the whole gels into an impressionist vision. “I’ll work for a couple of hours, maybe longer, before a painting comes together. There’s no point going back the next day because the light is never the same.” 

 

And so the still life work has evolved into more complex pictures, including several breakfast table paintings which have drawn attention and won awards. “I set them up in my studio under false light which remains constant of course. That means that I can return to them and work on them a lot longer that if I’m painting outdoors.”

 

Adam initially trained at Blackpool College of Art from 1988 to 1990. Over the years he has worked in factories, as a self-employed gardener and painted murals at Legoland and Blackpool pleasure beach. All good opportunities to observe. His reputation has grown during those years and he has very recently been elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. At the Royal Institute’s Mall Galleries exhibition in London, Adam won an award for one of his breakfast table pictures: ‘You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Bowl.’ 

 

I’m sure that Adam is looking forward to hitting the streets of Manchester and the areas around Blackpool where he lives when the weather improves. Although he has travelled and painted throughout the UK and Europe. But meanwhile he’ll continue to paint beautiful still life subjects with, in many instances, a guest appearance of his favourite brown tea pot. Adam can be contacted directly about his work through his website and his work is also often to be found at Contemporary Six Gallery on Princess Street, Manchester.