INGA DALRYMPLE

'Table with Dark shape', 2011, oil on canvas, 41 x41 cm

What are you working on right now?

I am not working on a specific series as such; mostly I’m just throwing paint around in an attempt to find new forms and relationships. This is what I’m always doing and I never feel complacent about how much I have to learn. The forms I am using at the moment are not so directly referential although I am vaguely aware of elements from nature, interiors or the urban landscape.

Can you describe your work routine?

Unfortunately I can’t be in my studio regularly due to family and work commitments but still I try to spend at least an hour every day except weekends when I can spend longer. When I have a good stretch of time I get straight into it and tend to work on several things at once, moving between drawing and painting. I mostly make quick paint sketches and this is a habit that I find to be invaluable because this process always helps me find solutions to any painting problems that may arise. It helps me to keep open and fresh.

Works in progress - studio

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

Before I moved to my current studio, which is a 3 x 3 meter basement without windows, I worked in an attic that was cramped and had very little wall space. That situation forced me to work quite small but now that I have a bigger space with walls that reach the ceiling I can spread out a bit and also work on larger formats. Sometimes I work on drawings pinned to the walls but mostly everything ends up on the floor. No matter how hard I try, this seems to be my preferred way of working. I’m really enjoying the ability to group things on the walls and being able to step back from them. This is helping me to find some continuity in what I’m producing and to see a larger common thread weaving itself through the work. I find that this is giving my work a new kind of energy that I’m enjoying.

Even though I have a bigger studio I still manage to be very messy and despite intending to be organized and neat, I never am. This doesn’t really bother me so much and often I’ll find myself inspired by some shape or colour combination that I might spy amongst the clutter of paint rags, pencils and jars that I’ve managed to arrange around me like some kind of magic circle. The fabric collages I’m beginning to make came about when I spied scraps of painted canvas on the floor – my first one made a satisfying combination and so I literally left it assembled as is.

sketchbook

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

It’s probably poor practice but I don’t set out to paint something with an end game in mind. I regularly destroy paintings (by which I mean either scraping back, if I’m using oils, or repainting if I’m using acrylic) not because I don’t always like the results, but because I like how this services the painting. It’s also a liberating way to work because then I don’t feel beholden to the original intention.

Sometimes I catch myself trying to save some little element – a nice pattern in the left hand corner for example – which I realize is holding me back. If I destroy that little bit suddenly I find something far more interesting. I like the idea that there are many layers in the painting and that each one informs the next, indeed could not exist without the one that preceded it. I also enjoy the energy and body that previous marks, colours or shapes might give to the final result. I used to eschew paint build up but now I welcome the way the patina adds a new dimension. Obviously I’m after a balance – or my own notion of a satisfying balance which might mean an off kilter or even tenuous relationship between a colour or a form or a mark which creates a tension that satisfies in some way.

I think a lot about graffiti and the way that the layering of spray paint over markers or posters or whatever creates a riot of mess but somehow, if you look closely, there can be a dazzling little discord going on which really pops out. I love the frenetic and unplanned clash of fat black lines with scratches and fluro blobs. I think that painting is a controlled version of that – not in a contrived way, but more as a process in which the artist is thinking about the history – what to cover, what to leave. Drawing is crucial to my process too. It helps me to stay fresh and not get too precious. I also regularly make collages out of old ‘failed’ drawings etc. Lately I’ve been using fabrics and painted scraps of canvas in my collages.

sketchbook

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

Like most artists I have good days and bad. Sometimes I want to throw it all in and take up something less hazardous – like skydiving! To me something is resolved when it becomes it’s own entity – like it just happened, as opposed to looking affected.  I like to get out of the way of my own work – this is when I feel like I’m working at my best. But it’s a balancing act. If I let the work become too much of its own master it will lead me in directions that don’t necessarily result in continuity. Some of my work can be somewhat geometric – exploring shapes in a more design orientated way, while other pieces can be looser. As I keep learning I find new ways to resolve things and I think damn, I wish I could use that on that painting from two years ago. I am sure that I will read this again in the future knowing something, some trick of the trade, and laugh at myself. I wish I could know it now!

Fabric collage 30 x 21cm

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

At the moment I’m working solidly with acrylic because I find it helps me to work larger. But I also like to use oils. When I’m drawing I use ink, pencil and sometimes textas as well as sharpie pens. I work on canvas or board but lately I’ve been experimenting with old bits of discarded wood. I’m very conscious of format sizes and how any change in size can affect the way I work with paint or whatever. Small works always attract me because I feel like I can be more direct but larger formats ask me to take risks, which I really like.

'Tumbled shapes' 2011,acrylic on paper 77 x112 cm

What does the future hold for these pieces?

Everything and nothing. I Guess I would like to keep building on the things I learn as I make them.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for the opportunity to do this interview and I’ve learnt a lot about my process and the things that are important to it.

JULIA SCHWARTZ

this is my pain(when i think of you),

 oil on canvas, 12x12 inches, 2011

What are you working on in your studio right now?

 
I am working on several new paintings that appear more "organic landscape" than figurative, although the sources and processes are the same as my usual work.

Can you describe your working routine?

I try and stay consistent about painting regularly as I've learned that if I am out of the studio for an extended period, I do get out of sorts. Sometimes I like it quiet, often I paint with the radio tuned to NPR as the shows cycle from news to music to news again. More often the music on my ipod is chosen to fit the work I am doing. Lately it's been Little Dragon and Hauschka, but there was a point where I listened only to Spoon GaGaGa.

I work on multiple paintings at a time, even multiple series at a time, and move from one painting to the next in fluid arcs of time. I have a large glass palette which gets very crusted over, so that you can really appreciate the history of color that has evolved over several series of paintings.

My other work (as a psychoanalyst) doesn't feel like a separate existence from my painting, but more like they are woven together somehow- I am an analyst who paints and a painter who does psychoanalysis. I feel each one enhances the other. But because of that work, I am in my office 3 days a week and in the studio the other time (although some days there is an overlap). Oh, and somehow, I also find time to be with my daughter and husband and family and friends.

studio and palette

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

About five years ago we converted our garage into a studio and I was able to shift my schedule so that I can paint at least 3 or 4 days a week in the studio. On those days after I drop my daughter off at school, I come home and check email and spend some time on the computer. When the house empties out, I head to the studio and see where things have been left off from the previous session and then get to work, and try not to think too much.

One of the difficulties I am facing is crowding in the studio. Although I don't paint every day, I work pretty fast when I do paint, and I have had to rent a storage unit because I have run out of room. Also, although having a home studio is really convenient, I am looking forward to a time when I can work in a studio that allows me to paint really large- right now, the biggest canvas I can work on comfortably is maybe 6 feet! Mostly, I work on canvas on various sizes and will trade out the one on the easel (I'm not able to work directly on the wall) but I also work sitting or kneeling on the ground; I like to hold small works on my lap and even walk around the studio and the garden a bit while painting. It's a different experience to paint while walking.

a cluttered studio birth of the spider (on the easel); unfinished giraffe in his cups (leaning)

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

It is very rare for me to start with a conscious idea or concept. That said, I have the feeling that much of the time that I'm out in the world, I'm taking things in that are then going to go into the artwork. Once I wrote: "I receive and hold images, ideas, phrases and lines from books, songs, and world events. I have been thinking of this lately as a virtual Rolodex that I hold unconsciously and it requires time spent in solitude, in a reverie state for the various images to coalesce in some way that makes sense in my work." When I come into the studio, that is the time for not thinking but for being present with the materials and just painting. Later there is a kind of back and forth 'dialogue' between me and the work, and I guess thinking, analyzing, and such goes on at that point.



What are you having the most trouble resolving?

I love Keats' idea of negative capability- that not everything can be resolved and the more I might try to resolve, the worse the outcome some of the time. So the tension for me is finding a balance of trying, between working and overworking a canvas which can destroy the gestural quality in a painting- it ends up suffocating a painting if I'm not careful. The other trouble for me is over thinking a painting or even over thinking myself, which leaves the work feeling stilted and deadened, do you know what I mean? So I'm wanting to push farther without over thinking or overworking.

studio wall, 2011

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

I love trying new things. I have experimented with various additives to paint-wax, marble dust, pumice, even dirt, but now I just stick to oil paint (I don't use chemicals because I'm prone to migraines).I have a table area that I think of as a "laboratory" of sorts where I experiment on paper and very small canvases (3 inches) with paints and tools- nails, screwdrivers, and all sorts of things I have collected over the years. For a while I was playing around with recyclable materials, but my studio became so cluttered with stuff that I had to make a decision to let that go, and to stick to painting. I think if I had started painting earlier in my life, I would try everything! But I feel like there is enough for me to explore just with oil right now.

When I travel, however, I take book pages or I use hotel stationery and draw and paint with water-based media like watercolor pencil and gouache.

always open windows, oil on canvas, 48x48 inches 2011

What does the future hold for this work?

As far as shows go, I have a solo show coming up in August at Bleicher Gallery La Brea in Los Angeles. And with the painting itself, I don't know what the future holds. I just keep painting and the work tends to evolve, often triggered by world events or other inspirations.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The internet has opened up this incredible community of artists- I have had an opportunity to hear and learn from people all over the world and to see into their studios and processes. Thank you, Valerie, for giving me the opportunity to talk about my process and to open my studio to you!

ADAM HEDLEY

Holding Jupiter 2011

What are you working on in your studio right now?

Currently my practice involves an ongoing series of paintings on linen canvas ranging from 50cms Square up to around 120cms in length. I am also building a series of mixed media drawings on A2 paper. This is an ongoing series that compiles sections of sketchbook drawings, collected photographs and ephemera. Outside of the studio I am working at my family home on three larger paintings on board, these measure approximately 175 x 110 cms.

Marvin, Oil on Canvas, 60 x 60cms, 2011

Can you describe your working routine?

Up until recently I have been working full time so my studio routine had to fit around that. I would work until 5.30 and then commute to the studio, arriving around 6.30 and working until around 10pm. More recently I have been fortunate enough to be able to work part time allowing me four free days. My studio is a fifteen-minute walk from home and has 24hour access so I don’t follow a particular routine, but like to spend at least two full days a week there.

Ideally I will arrive mid morning and work until the early evening. I like to keep at least 5 paintings on the go at all times. I’m working with oil paint so works are at all different stages, continuously changing and evolving, but there is no particular hierarchy or great order of things. I will be moving quickly between paintings, sometimes using a sketch or a photograph but often painting autonomously once I have recognized a starting point.

Outside of the studio I visit my family home in the Chiltern Hills, where I spend a great deal of time browsing through photographic archives which my mother has built up as well as a history of artworks and drawings which have been collected since my early childhood. It’s a great place to revisit certain events and memories whilst taking time to research, relax and take long walks.

Studio

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

I moved into my studio about a year ago with a good friend of mine. The studio is located within a courtyard of other studios. The premise was originally a suitcase factory many years ago, and later the home of an antique dealer. We’re spent a great deal of time renovating and painting the space during which time we have found a hidden bath underneath a work surface, sets of crucible pots and various other hidden curiosities.

I share with five other creative practitioners now, there’s a lot of variety and we are slowly gaining a good sense of community. Previous to having a studio I was constrained to working on paper, with collage and digital print. My studio space enables me to do all of this whilst focusing predominantly on painting.

I am grateful to have a space where nothing has to be filed away; it has been difficult in the past when working within the constraints of a spare room in a house. A studio away from the house enables me to have sketches, photographs, paintings and resources on display creating a useful dialogue which I can engage with.
Aside from just being a place to concentrate on my artistic practice, the studio is a sociable place, located in a courtyard surrounded by many other active studios, it’s a place to play music, gather with friends, eat and relax.




 

 Rolph, Collaboration with Ben Cavers,

I phone drawing, dimensions variable, 2010

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

There is a layering process, which has become central to my practice, whether using paint, collage, pen or digital methods. I am just as interested in the hidden or obscured remnants of a painting as I am the new image which is constantly evolving. Usually any pre conceptions or ideals are lost throughout the painting process. I’m as equally interested in the failures of my paintings as the successes. In addition to painting I am constantly working on a series of A2 drawings, these begin from obsessive patterning, architectural designs and become large-scale doodles of shapes colour and lines. I always keep a sketch book and a biro with me, it’s important to develop a vocabulary of images, marks and lines which often become reference points in painted studies.

I read that David Hockney began using an I -phone application to create miniature paintings. I had been creating digital works on my computer over the past 2 years so it wasn’t so much a digital migration but offered me something portable to produce sketches on the go. The works are built up as the paintings are - from many layers flattened and scrubbed out. Similar painterly gestures emerge and in turn these transitional forms are adopted in my painting.



 El Torro , Pen, Pencil and Crayon on paper, 59 x 84 cms, 2011

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

How long a painting takes and when it is finished. There’s a lot of chance in painting and a lot of time spent waiting for the painting to take you in a new direction. I’d like more equilibrium between thought and chance. Identifying the limitations and strengths of materials is an ongoing investigation which I am engaged in, and testing how materials can be combined is often quite arduous.

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

Primarily I want to paint, but the drawings, digital work and collage help to support and collate information. A lot of my work relies on discarded information, scraps and pieces from other disciplines. A sense of layering is omnipresent in my work and I am intrigued by the sculptural discovery and archaeology of these artworks. I am also conscious of the relationship of the ultra flat machined aesthetic of digital print and the ease of mechanical reproduction vs. traditional painting methods, authenticity and importance of painting in history.

Woolgatheriing, Oil on Board, 70 x 70 cms, 2010-2011

What does the future hold for this work?

Continuing working on a series of paintings on wood and canvas, a series of larger paintings and an ongoing compilation of drawing and digital images. More successes, more failures and surprises, more refinement but without a strict model or method to making paintings.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

It is often difficult to find out information about the creative processes, methods and routines of artists without approaching them. This blog allows openness between artists enabling for an insight into how artists operate, and in answering these questions I have been able to reflect on my practise and hopefully offer something back to the creative community.



JASMINE JUSTICE

Pillow Talk, acrylic on linen, 50 x 50 cm, 2011

What are you working on in your studio right now?

Right now I am hoping to finish some small paintings I'd tried but failed to have ready for my show that's up now in Chicago at 65Grand. I have several others I've just started that are in the 150 cm range.

     

                                                    

        Can you describe your working routine?

        I teach in the evenings, so I work in my studio in the daytime and on weekends. I usually start out in the morning with a coffee while I look at what I have going on, often catching up with news on Democracy Now. After about 30 minutes to an hour I start mixing paint and moving things around. A lot of the time I put several containers of paint right next to all the paintings in the room to help me further visualize or remember what I imagine. Once in a while it requires a note or two to myself.  I also like to group different paintings together and sort of overlap them so I can imagine what they would be like if they were merged or if certain parts were taken out.

Studio floor

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

                Now my studio is in a district of Istanbul where not very old furniture is renovated, mostly in a Baroque style. It's furniture that we would throw away in the States, but here they work miracles! The materials are both horribly cheap or shoddy and very fancy. These unlikely combinations form what I have begun to see as sculptures in progress. The effects created are very inspiring to me, as are the the dialogues they have with their public settings, on marble platforms, strange stairways and at the bus stop in front of my studio.

Winter studio view

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

                With my paintings, I start with one color and intuitively disperse it onto the canvas or linen. These initial pigment accumulations are all different and usually very exciting to me, so I have started making laser jet print installation pieces out of photographs of them. But after I have shot them, the process become more complicated, resulting in a finished painting that sometimes has been through many lives.

                                                               

           

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

        Small paintings.  They are not so fun as big paintings, in the bodily sense, and making them requires a different kind of psychological projection.

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

 I really enjoy working in all different media.  I have done some  photography, installation and video and would love to do more.  Sometimes I feel so excited about all the possibilities that I think maybe I won't paint anymore and I often dream of sculptures I want to make!  There are also the print pieces I've mentioned. They are really fun and much more mobile in terms of traveling and being displayed than the more physical items I make, but painting is a total addiction for me. Nothing satisfies me the way painting does.

Roxelana, acrylic on linen, 150 x 150 cm2011

What does the future hold for this work?

              I can't say what I will be doing next year other than painting. I really hope to keep having opportunities for making new kinds of things and sharing them with different audiences.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I hope more artists from all over will move to Istanbul. The cost of living here is cheap and it's easy to find a great workspace. The art scene here seems to get larger and more varied by the minute!