The curious painter of colourful semi-abstracts opens the doors to her bright North London workspace.
For your last exhibition, Field, you said that “colour was the subject”. Is the same true for this new body of work?
The heart of all of my work is a meeting between the mark, the colour and the subject, and I’m always wanting to get those three things to be equally important. With this show, there’s more of a distinct presence of different subject matter. Each individual painting has got a different kind of response to the layers that have been built up into it.
When the works leave the studio for an exhibition, do you take a moment to sit down and consider what to do next?
Oh no, that has to naturally develop through what I’m making. When I go back into the studio after an exhibition, there’ll be loads of avenues I will go down that don’t necessarily work out. There’s a lot of experimentation and exploring – it might be the scale, it might be a subject, the combination of colours, the kinds of paint I’m using. I’ll be playing around with all those different elements.
You have five paintings on the wall now. Is it important for you to see them together and develop them in that way?
Definitely. I always work on groups of paintings.
Will it always be the same five?
Oh no, I keep shifting them around and then I build up the bigger group of paintings together.
What sort of things are you looking for together?
Denne historien er fra July 2019-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
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Denne historien er fra July 2019-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Still life IN 3 HOURS
Former BP Portrait Award runner-up FELICIA FORTE guides you through a simple, structured approach to painting alla prima that tackles dark, average and light colours in turn
Movement in composition
Through an analysis of three masterworks, landscape painter and noted author MITCHELL ALBALA shows how you can animate landscape composition with movement
Shane Berkery
The Irish-Japanese artist talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about the innovative concepts and original colour combinations he brings to his figurative oil paintings from his Dublin garden studio
The Working Artist
Something old, something new... Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL has expert advice for balancing fresh ideas with completing half-finished work
Washes AND GLAZES
Art Academy’s ROB PEPPER introduces an in-depth guide to incorporating various techniques into your next masterpiece. Artwork by STAN MILLER, CHRIS ROBINSON and MICHELE ILLING
Hands
LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands
Vincent van Gogh
To celebrate The Courtauld’s forthcoming landmark display of the troubled Dutch master’s self-portraits, STEVE PILL looks at the stories behind 10 of the most dramatic works on display
BRING THE drama
Join international watercolour maestro ALVARO CASTAGNET in London’s West End to paint a dramatic street scene
Serena Rowe
The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall
Bill Jacklin
Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration
