"Suburban Phasmophobia" by Robbie Bushe
Born in Liverpool and raised in Aberdeenshire, Bushe's journey has been a rich tapestry of influences and inspirations. Graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 1990, he taught painting at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, was Head of Fine Art at the University of Chichester and has lectured at Kent Institute of Art and Design and Oxford Brookes University. Bushe returned to Scotland in 2007 to run short courses at Edinburgh College of Art. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and was elected as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in 2017.
Drawing upon his love of Sci-Fi, technical drawing and his own experiences and observations during the Covid lock-downs, Bushe has embarked on a journey of artistic exploration, chronicling the tales of a family of gardeners besieged by the whims of a bureaucratic "Garden Inspectorate”, a practice that stirred childhood memories and reflections on the tumultuous events of the contemporary world.
His own homes and gardens, past and present, dissected and exploded-out along with those of his neighbours' reveal flip-book style the inner workings, musings and memories of a human jungle or, in Bushe’s words, “Garden Cathedral”. Bushe’s paintings, though moving away from figures as the main focus, continue to be inhabited by a multitude of often unrecognisable individuals, throbbing and vibrating in the dance of life, much like the largely unnoticed bugs and insects in a cottage garden. Some a composite memory of his past and those of his family, some faceless bodies that appear to float through smoke as if being transported to an unseen alien craft overhead as in "Suburban Phasmophobia".
In an artists talk to accompany the exhibition Bushe offered insights into his creative process, shedding light on the meticulous craftsmanship that defines his work. From the importance of sketching as a tool for exploration to his approach to colour and composition, working practices, initiation of pieces through to execution.
Robbie Bushe sketchbooks
Deeply inspired by his engineer father, and his own hobby of technical drawing Bushe makes use of photographs, images from the internet and Google Earth to lay out and construct his landscapes, an invaluable tool when basing a composition on a real place. Bushe uses his fine felt pen drawings and sketchbook meanderings (which combine both drawn and collaged elements) as source for his larger oil painting works where he initially lays down the architectonic frame of his compositions to “hang his paintings on” imbuing the paintings with a real sense of 3D space.
“I am a drawing obsessive,” notes Bushe “and my sketchbooks work generally falls into three strands: directly drawn observations from everyday life, stream of conscious imaginative drawings usually done while at meetings or watching tv and compositional and preparatory planning of ideas” [source: Jackson's Art Blog].
Robbie working on a painting. Photo credit: @helenpughphotography
Not as adept with the brush as the pen, according to Bushe, he then paints onto these frames allowing changes to composition and inclusion of various elements unrestricted by any attempt to achieve a realism in the final work. Bushe notes “I always used to think that drawing was my main strength and was the most important tool I had. Now I think it is my use and understanding of colour – and more importantly, its relationship with tone” [source: Jackson's Art Blog].
Deeply influenced by Pierre Bonnard and the post-impressionists, Bushe uses colour to tie the paintings together in a particular mood rather than attempting a close match with reality. Bushe gives colour a huge consideration when starting a painting creating mood boards, often using collage materials, to set the colour range, proportion of colour and tonal hues to decide on the dominant colour of the piece which works to keep the work as one. He also favours smaller brushes and dabs and streaks akin to the post-impressionists using closely related tonal variations in his work to achieve depth as well as meaning.
Otherworldly, rather than sentimental, “Ghosts in the Garden” is considered by Bushe to be his most colourful exhibition to date, and visitors to the gallery will be immersed in a bright and colourful world where the boundaries between reality, imagination and memory are blurred, where the mundane is imbued with a sense of wonder, and where ghosts of the past dance amidst the verdant foliage of the present.
Through Bushe's artistry, viewers are invited to pause, reflect, and embark on a journey into the recesses of their own imagination , remembering times gone by with acceptance rather than nostalgia. Borne out of Covid lock-down the exhibition was reminiscent of a timeless sanctuary and echoed a kind of ‘otherness’ or disconnect between the observer and the traumatic global events of the time.
Bushe’s current projects are a look at the historic buildings of Edinburgh University and also a post-apocalyptic view of Edinburgh’s Princes Street, bringing home a reality that we have all been witness to and as experienced by the citizens of Palestine and Ukraine.
“Ghosts in the Garden” by Robbie Bushe runs at the Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh until 27th April 2024.
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