BFAP Magazine 2023 - Flipbook - Page 68
What advice would you give to a first
year?
I would say enjoy taking the time
to experiment and understand that
growth as an artist can be so gradual
that sometimes it is barely noticeable.
It takes patience and you do not
have to be a child prodigy to make
good work. In my first year, I was
so anxious to find my style or my
personal visual language that I lost
the joy in creating. In hindsight, I
realise that I had to make a lot of
seemingly pointless art to develop.
You’re hosting a dinner party for 3
artists, who would it be and why?
I think I'd choose to invite Evelyn
De Morgan and Leonor Fini as two
of the guests. Evelyn De Morgan
seems such a magical person and as a
female painter in the pre-Raphaelite
movement she must have had an iron
will to succeed. Leonor Fini was
a female surrealist known as ‘the
cat-lady’, as she owned over 50 cats!
When I read about each of them, I
think, God, we’d get along! As my
third, I’d have to invite Damien
Hirst...only to question him on his
ethics on using animals in art, give
him a piece of my mind and watch
him squirm in front of two truly
talented art icons! It would be an
interesting night!
How do you keep motivated?
Talking to fellow artists and friends
really drives me to make work.
The painting process can be a very
solitary experience and although
I need that alone time to progress
with a piece, there is nothing better
than bouncing ideas back and forth
with others. It also helps me to see
the good in my work as I can get a
defeatist attitude when things aren't
working out.
How do you see your work evolving
in the future?
I hope to continue making figurative,
surreal art and develop this world
that is slowly evolving. I would
like to spend more time returning
to the imagined figures that have
made during my painting degree.
However, as a figurative artist,
I want to improve my technical
drawing skills, so I am able to draw
more constructively and waste less
time struggling with perspective
and foreshortening. If the painting
runs dry, I will turn to ceramics as
my artistic outlet as this year it has
brought me a lot of joy.
Do you find inspiration from looking
at the history of painting?
In short, absolutely. I view my
art making process as a response
to paintings from many different
time periods. Sometimes, I even
use paintings as a starting point
for making work. For example,
when I painted A Picnic in The
Wastelands (2022), I had Manet’s Le
Dejeuner Sur L'herbe (1862-63) in
mind. Paintings like that have such
opinionated and charged critiques
surrounding them that it feels
powerful to engage in some sort of
conversation with them.
BFAP
68
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La Dalmatienne
2023
Acrylic on plywood
70 x 32 cm
2023