Alec Tayler, Northland
Growing up on the Northland coast, Alec Tayler has always had a passion for landscapes, light and life. He developed an interest in the arts and design early on but has only recently made the move to painting full-time. Tayler lives and works in Auckland.
Predominantly self-taught, Tayler describes himself as a “digital printmaker”, combining traditional techniques with computer-based tools to create original artworks. Digital printmaking in the fine arts arena is an exciting new development, and Tayler is something of a pioneer in this field. Instead of a blank canvas and paint box, he starts with a blank screen and a pen tablet. Working from his memory of a scene, together with photographs he has taken, Tayler creates each landscape stroke-by-stroke, using a pen that converts hand movements into brush strokes on-screen. A landscape comprises of up to 50 colours, with each colour painted on its own layer, working from lightest to darkest. More often than not the fine detail is created by reduction – removing colour from a layer above to let the colour below show through. Aside from the medium, the process is in every way traditional – just building up a picture one stroke, splash and mark at a time. Each scene takes up to 6 weeks to complete.
