JAI LLEWELLYN

T'Bar, oil & acrylic on canvas, 35x25cm, 2013

 

 

 

What are you working on in your studio right now?

I’m working on a few things. I’m putting together a series of miniatures for a travelling show titled, ‘Wandering Museum’.  I usually work fairly small but these measure just 7x5cm and are the smallest things I have ever worked on. At first it seemed like an impossible task but actually I soon became accustomed to the scale and I am enjoying the challenge. I am also working on a series of small canvases given to me by a friend who is opening a gallery and wanted me to do something for her. I am working on eight, 25x30cm canvases.  They are still in early stages and I am just laying down colours and making marks.

 

 

Can you describe your working routine?

I don’t have a set routine but most days I try to start by 9am. I start by tidying up a bit from the day before, putting some music on, having a cup of coffee and a cigarette. I may do some preparation or something to loosen me up that doesn’t involve being too careful. My hands don’t work very well early on.  I work through until about 3 or 4 and I find that the best things happen in that last couple of hours. If I work much longer than that I start to get sloppy. Sometimes I allow some time at the end of that day to do something adventurous and experimental which usually leaves me keen to get back into the studio the next day.

 

 

 

Monotypes

 

 

 

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?


I have two studio spaces, one is in the loft of my house where I do most of my painting and the other is a print workshop which is a shared space I use once or twice a week. Working in my loft is a solitary practice, I have time to reflect to sit and gaze at the work. A quiet space (when the children are not at home) where I can spend time thinking and working in a slow and more considered manner. In opposition to that, when at the print studio there is a social aspect, a buzz about the place. We share ideas and opinions and literally have to make room for each other. Both practices offer a release from the other.

 

 

 

 

Loft Studio

 

Print Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.


I work in both print and paint. Etching is fast, direct and primitive, you often get just one hit at it. Whereas painting is slower, contemplative and allows for mistakes and change.  The two practices often inform each other and recently there has been a more direct relationship between them. A lot of my newer works have begun with a print, usually a monotype of some kind. When I’m printing I lose myself in the process and I can play, particularly with colour, without thinking about a finished image. Working in this way sets some parameters but also enables me to try out, relatively quickly, variations on a theme. I will take the prints back to the studio at home and work on them further with various media but usually with oil.  I may have ten prints of various sizes and different colours which I will work on at the same time.

 

 

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

 

At the moment I am struggling with canvas. I am coming back to it after working for a long time on paper. There is something about the edge that I can’t quite put my finger on. I have cut the canvas off the stretchers for a few pieces after getting frustrated with the edge, this has worked a few times though it wasn’t my initial intention. It is also the flex of the canvas that I often don’t like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top: Untitled oil drawing 2, 38x28cm, 2013

Below: Untitled oil drawing 3, 40x30cm, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

I do try to experiment as much as possible though I think I am starting to narrow down my use of materials to tried and tested methods and techniques. It is in print where I am still expanding my knowledge and trying out new processes all the time, there is so much to learn and so many possibilities. Saying that, there are some things that never change - I always work on a relatively small and intimate scale and etching is something that I will always do and has its own particular set of rules.

 

 

 

in progress

 

 

 

 

What does the future hold for this work?


I think the relationship between my painting and printing will become ever closer and maybe eventually merge into one.  It is impossible to foresee how this will materialise but this relationship is, for me, the most exciting aspect of my work. 

 

 

Is there anything else you would like to add?


I would like to say how happy I am to be taking part in a group show which has just opened at the Proto Gallery, New York. This is my first exhibition in the U.S and is alongside some wonderful artists. I would also like to thank you, Valerie, for asking me to do this interview. It is always interesting for me to reflect on what I am doing.

 

 

 

 

Frequency, oil on canvas, 37x28cm, 2013

 





 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



ANDY PARKINSON

Screen (Yellow Band), 2013, acrylic on board, 24" x 24"

 

 

 

 

What are you working on in your studio right now?

 

 

Well, first I should say that, working mostly in a spare room of my house, or sometimes even in some hotel bedroom (My other job as a freelance learning consultant means I am away from home a lot of the time), I hesitate to use the word ‘studio’. I have two series on the go at the moment. One involves covering high-colour patterns with a secondary black and white diagonal chequer pattern. The other, which is new enough to have no finished pieces yet, is a series of text-based grids that start out in high colour and become a sequence of different blacks. In both cases colour is supressed, pushing it to the edges or covering it almost completely.

 

Can you describe your working routine?

 

 

I have numerous paintings on the go at any one time. Usually, a small painting travels with me and I work on it when I get chance, and then there are larger ones scattered around the house, that I work on when I get whole days at a time. I paint almost every day even if only for an hour. When I get whole days I start early in the morning, 6am in the summer, and work until about 5pm. I have countless breaks for cups of tea and I usually have a half hour lunch break. When I am in a hotel, I might have a couple of hours late on, say 10pm to midnight. The light isn’t so good then and that can be very frustrating.

 

 

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?
 Years ago, when I had a bigger space I used to make much larger paintings than I do now. However the best were always the smaller ones that I did at home so, when I came back to painting in 2010, I determined to keep the work on a small scale, and to work at home. This choice affects the space, which in turn affects the work, especially its scale. The room I work in most is about 12 by 10 feet, so a 4 foot square painting seems large. The room is empty which means I can work on the wall or on the floor and I do both. I also work in another area that is really my office and that space is smaller still.

Veil, 2013, acrylic on canvas glued to board, 12 1/2" x 12 1/2"

 

 

 

 

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.
 

The grid is nearly always my starting point because that seems the most rational way of dividing the surface to create a pattern that relates to the dimensions of the support. I think in terms of pattern and surface as opposed to ‘picture’.  If I wasn’t using a grid I would likely make only colour monochromes, always an alluring alternative for me.

At present I either take canvases that were once finished and paint over them, Or, I deliberately create a new pattern which I then paint over. In both cases I attempt to obliterate what’s underneath, whilst knowing that residual elements will show through, becoming incorporated into the completed piece. What gets painted is determined by a system or pattern, whereas what gets incorporated is largely determined by chance.

Most of my decision making takes place between paintings rather than as the painting is progressing. I deliberately resist improvisation, which I equate with the illusion of freedom. I always work in series and each new painting is a variation on the theme of that series.  What interests me is the ‘free play’ that can be introduced into a pre-determined system.
 

 

 

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

 

 

In my new series I am making use of gridded patterns based on sentences, each letter being coded as a colour, eventually becoming black. That they are different blacks means they can be differentiated, whilst the overall view is a black monochrome. The colours become seductive and I find that I want to leave them in their high colour state. So, I guess the trouble is in having the courage to follow through. Whilst they are in this high colour state they remain unresolved in relation to the system I am working with.

 

 

 

Truth is subjectivity,

acrylic on plastic covered MDF, 9 x 9 ", 2013

 

 

 

 

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

 

 

I think it would be fair to say that I experiment with materials only a bit, preferring to work with stretched canvas or board, and almost always using acrylics because they dry quickly and because I like their synthetic or artificial quality, vs. the seductive beauty of oils. I think I have phases of experimentation and then I tend to settle down into something more fixed. For example earlier this year I was working with marker pen on tracing paper and gluing it to board with the underside of the tracing paper uppermost. This allowed me to work over the colours without them physically bleeding through. In the process of gluing it down, the tracing paper stretched and creases developed which became incorporated into the pattern, almost like a pattern of interrupts. I was also using household paint for the top layers. This led to me making a few paintings on board using this process, and more recently on canvas I have borrowed from what I learned in the earlier experimental phase, for example getting my paint to the same consistency as the household paint I had been using.

 

 

What does the future hold for this work?

 

 

I have no idea. I think abstraction is rather unfashionable and I often feel alone in continuing to find a systems methodology very appealing. So I just keep attempting to make the paintings that I want to see.  Perhaps it’s something of an obsession. I don’t want to be cured.

 

 

 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

 

 

Only that I have enjoyed answering your questions. How is it that questions are always more interesting than any answers we might give?  

 

 

 

Envelope, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"






JUDITH FARR

Exit, gouache on A3 paper, 2013

 

 

 

 

What are you working on in your studio right now?

 

I’m working on projects for my MFA, which I’m doing with the Open College for the Arts located in the UK. I just started the course a few months ago, but so far it’s really challenging, which is just what I’m doing it for, so I’m very pleased. The current task is called ‘Form, frame, and fracture’, we have a 12 hour time limit and so far I’ve done two and a half hours of it. I started very quickly, and I just started painting almost immediately. I don’t like to over think things, something I used to do, so I just went with my first response to the project title. I remembered this collage by Ellsworth Kelly where he had cut up a painting of some brushstrokes into 49 squares and arranged them at random to create a new fractured composition. I really enjoyed the simplicity of this approach and the rhythm it created.

 

 

Can you describe your working routine?

 

It normally takes me a while to get started, but when I do get going I work very quickly. I’ve found that I work best in short bursts because I get tired easily and when I’m tired I overwork things. I like to work quickly and then come back after a break with new energy. I don’t have a particular time of day for working, I just do what I can in the time I have, while my daughter is at school if I don’t have any work on (I’m an English tutor).

Task 2 project 1, 

inspired by Ellsworth Kelly acrylic on paper

 

 

 

 

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

 

 

My studio has just been refurbished after the successful completion of a crowd funding project that I did during the summer. It’s about 25m2 and so far it’s not too cluttered, so it’s very light and airy. I have two south-east facing windows and one south facing one, so I have good light in the morning. The studio is just outside the town where I live in Spain. It’s quite rural and the studio looks out over fruit trees and farm buildings. Being able to see trees out the window makes me feel very happy and lucky, so I think it definitely has a positive impact on my work. I’ve never had such a beautiful space to work in before and I treasure it and any time I have to come here. Cycling down here I feel like a very privileged person. The studio is above the offices of a company that rents out gardening allotments, they also do a lot of courses and activities related to this and everything to do with living an ecologically friendly lifestyle. So there are always people around to talk to, there are also chickens, who I sometimes chat to. It’s just a great place to come. I do little illustration and design jobs for them in return for using this studio space, and they’ve allowed me to do it up how I wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

 

 

I tend to start off with a colour, an automatic drawing based on something I’ve seen or something I going through that I need to work out. I may be thinking about something I’ve seen in nature or some colour combination that I found interesting or many times the work of an artist I’ve seen and felt inspired by. I try to allow things to happen and not worry too much about making something good. I’ve been fighting against a need to control everything in my work and in life, so I try to do the opposite while working. I have to keep a sharp eye on myself so that I don’t get too worried about the work. In this way I make some initial drawings or marks on the surface (currently mostly paper) and go from there. Sometimes I’ll stop fairly early and feel satisfied that the work is done, whether good or bad it is done. Other times I’ll spend more time working into the work until I feel frustrated and can’t see a way to save it. I love this part because this struggle can lead to some very interesting things. Usually when I get to a certain point of being frustrated with a piece I’ll leave it for another day, and when I come back to the work after having had a rest I can usually find a way to save it, in this way I’ve made some of my favourite pieces of work.

 

 

 

 

work in progress, gouache and acrylic on A2 paper

What are you having the most trouble resolving?


I have on going doubts about making pictures that are two chaotic and fussy, I also worry that I’m more visceral than intellectual about my work. I’d also like to use a wider range of materials. I’m currently stuck on a piece that I spent a lot negative energy on, I was having a bad day and every decision I made about the piece just made things worse. This is potentially a good thing because I can do whatever I want to it now and not care too much about messing it up. I have been tentatively combining the use of gouache and acrylic paint on my pictures these days wondering what would happen and it’s been quite interesting. I’ve started reading this book by James Elkins called ‘What painting is’, so far it compares the artist’s intuitive use of materials to alchemy, so now when I’m painting I feel a bit magical, I just love that idea that you have to feel your way through a process where there are no set outcomes.



Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?


I would love to be more experimental with materials, it’s definitely a long term goal, but it takes me a while to find the courage to do this. This year I’ve been working with acrylic, oil and gouache and I really enjoyed seeing how the materials have influenced the work. I would like to spend more time using oil, but it’s daunting for me because it’s quite slow and messy and doesn’t allow me to work at the speed I enjoy with gouache and acrylic. I also enjoy collage and I’ve done a bit of work with plasticine. I’d really like to try spray paints at some point.

Wave, gouache on A3 paper

What does the future hold for this work?


I really don’t know where my work is going, I’m just really enjoying the time I have to paint. I’m sure the MFA will have a huge effect on what I make, as well as working in my new studio space. I’m noticing a need to make larger work and I feel quite board of working on rectangles I’m not sure how feelings are going to be resolved yet.



Is there anything else you would like to add?


I’d like to thank you Valerie for the opportunity to participate in this wonderful blog, which I’ve been a follower of for a while now. And thanks also to my artist friends on Face Book who have been so supportive of my work; this has made a huge difference to my confidence in myself as an artist.  

Was I thinking about cake, gouache on A3 paper, 2013



MATTHEW WONG

Untitled, oil on canvas, 100 X 80 cm

 

 

 

What are you working on in your studio right now?

 

 

My main studio for oil painting is in Zhongshan, China, and at the moment I am working on a large batch of canvasses in preparation for my first solo exhibition, which will be held at the artist village compound where my studio is located. The show is currently planned for Easter 2014. I spend half my time there, the other half in Hong Kong, where I have works on paper and an assortment of smaller paintings on board and smaller canvasses being worked on on a daily basis.

 

 

 

Can you describe your working routine?

 

 

My working routine is not really fixed according to any schedule, but when I am in Hong Kong, work begins from the moment I wake up in the morning and usually carries on, on and off, until I retire very late at night. The only thing that takes place at the same time every day is when I get out of bed, I have to do an ink drawing before doing anything else, such as brushing my teeth or eating. I spend a good part of the daytime at the library writing poetry and poring over art books, as well as photographing around town but with no fixed project or goal in mind. In the evenings after dinner I'm usually listening to music, looking at art online, and then drawing/painting until around 2 or 3 A.M. In Zhongshan the schedule is a bit more disciplined, as I don't do as much poetry or photography up there. I basically go into the studio in the mornings and paint until the early evening, pretty much every day of the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

 

My studio space in Zhongshan is a larger, proper studio set up so I have more freedom of movement when working there, can work on bigger pieces, and also since it is purely a work space where I do not live, it gets pretty messy as my painting process is quite physical. In Hong Kong I just work in my apartment's living room, where I still make a mess that I have to clean up, but due to the significantly smaller space I generally don't work on anything bigger than 30 X 22 inches (76 X 56 cm) there.

 

 

 

 

 

Untitled, acrylic on paper, 76 X 56 cm

 

 

 



 

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

 

My process is fairly intuitive without much attention paid to a larger conceptual framework or serial working manner at the moment. I began teaching myself to draw and paint from scratch since 2012, so it is still very early for me and I am just trying to see 'what the paint does,' as I believe Robert Ryman once said of his own beginnings as a painter. At the center of my practice is exploring the materiality of paint and struggling to yield a surface that gives a sense of space and structure, however contradictory, that reaches a state of form I can live with. As it is, I have gotten to a stage in the past few months where there is starting to be some consistency and integration from work to work, often with a landscape-like space or an archetypal suggestion of figures/figuration somewhere in the picture plane. I figure these basic painterly tropes are a good starting point for me to establish my visual vocabulary and also have a dialogue with the paintings of the past and present that I admire and learn from looking at.
 

When I actually get to paint, there really isn't any methodical approach or system to what I do. A color may just come to mind at random, and I will begin putting that onto the surface, making gestures without any plan or expectation of what I am going to get out of it, but one mark responds to another, colors start piling up, getting scraped away, and built up again, and so on and so forth, and somewhere along the line I always reach a certain point where I can intuitively sense the general shape and structure of the image I need to work towards. Once I get to that point, it is just a matter of continuing to work the painting in that direction, and to clarify that very vague and fleeting but definitely there inkling of what the image would be. Sometimes I could just be making marks almost haphazardly and at a certain point I step back and realize I have a finished, satisfactory image that I have no idea how I managed to pull that one off. I'm just going with my gut at the moment. But often times, my gut also cancels itself out and I keep painting over an image with a totally different image, and work like this can go on for months before a single surface is resolved. But of course, it may not be resolved anymore a bit further down the road, so we will see! The key for me is to remain open and receptive to my creative instinct, but also to be able to let go at times and accept.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top: Harbinger, ink on paper

Middle: Untitled, ink on paper

Below: Sparrow's Flight, ink and acrylic on paper

all 76 X 56 cm

What are you having the most trouble resolving?


I guess the thing I am having the biggest difficulty resolving right now is whether to work in a manner where I strive to make pleasing, beautiful images that other people can like and accept easily, therefore giving the impression that I am a "good" painter, whatever that means, and making that an end in itself, or to also be able to accept the parts of my creativity that occasionally yield up ugly, difficult pictures and seeing where those take me. I am still young and it is natural I suppose for someone at my age to want to be heard and understood in the world, to be liked and respected. But many of the painters I admire seem to have moved beyond this, and are able to really paint out of themselves without the need to impress in particular. I hope I can develop the courage to get to that stage someday, as I realize the habit of simply making well qualified, impressive work that does not really challenge some existing standards of form and aesthetics is also a symptom of much art out there that heavily caters to the marketplace. I must always keep in mind to prioritize constant movement and experimentation over the acquisition of virtuosity.

Untitled, oil on canvas, 100 X 80 cm

 

 

 

 

 

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

 

I like to work in different mediums: oils, acrylics, ink, watercolor and gouache, and I don't really place any of them in higher importance than the rest, even though I sometimes receive feedback such as "your ink works are more consistent than your oils" or something like that.. All still fairly traditional materials, but I like to experiment with each of them and figure out what properties and resistances they yield, and sometimes in combination with each other. This is a good way for me to learn about paint itself and how it engages with different surfaces, such as paper, canvas, wood, etc.

 

 

What does the future hold for this work?

I really do not know what the future holds for my work, except that I'd like to keep making it and hope that more people will be able to see it, especially in the flesh. Facebook has been great as it has brought me out of isolation and put my images on public circulation for anyone to access and have a dialogue with, but the tactile nature of my work also requires a personal, physical presence to be really engaged with.

 

 

 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

 

 

Thank you Valerie for giving me the opportunity for this interview and for the chance that more people can find out about what I do. I'm still learning, so I am grateful to have this platform at this stage for me.

 

 

 

Paradise, oil on canvas, 220 X 170 cm