Everyone on the planet knows someone that has a creative talent of some form. If they’re extremely brave, some of those people may have taken the gigantic leap to try to make their living doing something they’re passionate about. Usually these things aren’t financially rewarding unless you are one of the very, very lucky few (or you have rich parents)… There isn’t too much help for people beneath the top of the ladder, yet it’s just a matter of helping people out and to make introductions.
What is this all about?
What I’d like to do with my blog over the next few weeks is introduce to you people that I know, who are doing just this. What I’d like each of you to do, which is really very simple, is to share (Twitter/Facebook/Wordpress) or forward this post to anyone that is either;
- Moving or working in creative circles
- Interested in working with, or helping out another creative
- Looking to offer work or give opportunities that may be relevant to the people interviewed
- Not connected to people that could help the person being interviewed, but may just bloody well enjoy what they’re doing!
Paints like an Essex-based Demon
Creative People Interview #2
Eve Brinkley-Whittington (Artist)
I recently purchased a print at Eve’s studio on a farm near Colchester, Essex.
The place where she paints is effectively a community of artists; a creative hub and worthy of a visit to one of their open days if you live in our around the county of Essex (Look up Cuckoo Farm Studios).
If I were to title this interview it would be ‘Vajazzling Castles’!
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PS: “I suppose the first question has to be; ‘At what moment between scribbling with pencils and crayons as a child and studying art at Anglia Ruskin University did you think that (this) was the path you had to take in life and become an Artist?’
EBW: I don’t ever remember having a moment at which I knew that Art was the path for me. In fact I can remember more points at which I completely questioned the choices I had made in doing Art at all. I have had several times where I have questioned my ability, but I know so many other artists who have had similar experiences….I think that it is part and parcel of being a creative. When I finished my Painting degree at Loughborough I spent a period of several years without picking up a paintbrush, but then one day I felt compelled to start again and I haven’t stopped since. Painting makes me incredibly happy, and the excitement at the start of each piece of work is great.
PS: I never see people sitting outside painting anymore like ‘the good old days’; if they ever existed… Where do you paint? Do you have a secret studio or Batcave somewhere?
EBW: I do like to sketch outside, but struggle to paint outside. I like to sketch directly from a subject but sometimes it is difficult to, so I take lots of photo’s that I can then work from in my studio. I don’t know if the landscape painters of pre-20th century camera technology would have used it if they could have – I’m sure they would. What I do make sure is that I have really got a sense of the place I am painting, you can’t get that from a photo alone. My work is increasingly about what lies beneath the landscape, it’s history. Landscapes are emotive, they mean a lot of things to different people, they can be simply a nice view, a place people spend their lives or create a memory in. They can be a place where people love to spend their time so much that they wish to be buried there. They resonate their history to us and this is something that I’m exploring increasingly in my work.
PS: A lot of people try to shrug off their Essex routes (a sparkly fairy tale county in England for anyone reading outside the UK), but your art really celebrates where you come from. Did you choose to do that intentionally?
EBW: Yes. I am very proud of being an Essex girl and have always felt that as a county we are much maligned. We have such a beautiful landscape, a dramatic history and we have produced some of the most influential people in British history. My work looks at the disparity between the reality and the stereotype, or the expected. outside of Essex most people think that it’s all fake, superficial, artificial….and you can find that here (no more than anywhere else if you ask me!) but there is so much more to us than this parade of plastic. With the “The Only Way is Constable” I took a famous painting of his (Hadleigh Castle) and repainted it, vajazzling the castle itself. A lot of people don’t realise that Constable is a local lad and that his iconic landscapes are painted along the Essex/Suffolk borders. More recently in a work I sold only last month to a collector in Scotland (All that glitters must surely be from Essex) I painted a view of the viaduct at Chapel, it’s a favourite among local artists. I painted the majority of the landscape in oils – traditionally, but made the entire viaduct out of glitter. I’m giving the viewer partially what they want or expect to see form a work which hails from Essex, but sarcastically kind of a “here, this is what you want to see isn’t it?”. However, I have moved on from this in my work now – I am still currently using local views in my work, at the moment I’m painting the Roman Wall at Colchester, but am using layers of local history in the work, capturing not just a view but a snapshot of 2000 yrs in one painting.
“All that glitters must surely be from Essex” – prints still available.
PS: How did you discover your own style and build that identity into your work?
EBW: I don’t think I have discovered it yet…I might not ever. I have read several articles that state an artist finds greater success if they develop a “style”, I think that this could be more restrictive than anything else. The identity, well I suppose I put an awful lot of myself into each piece of work, they are all very personal pieces, which surprisingly can make it difficult when selling them. But I enjoy being able to experiment with each piece, and with letting it develop as I’m making it. Quite often a work can end up looking very different to how I intended to look at the start, but for me that’s part of the excitement of painting. Perhaps one day, during a large retrospective of my work at the Tate, my style of identity will be obvious to see!!
PS: Who has the been the biggest inspiration to get you (or keep you) on your journey?
EBW: I have questioned myself a number of times, my family and friends have always been great in those times of self-doubt. My parents were tremendously supportive of my love of Art. I can imagine a lot of parents raising a cynical eyebrow when being told by their child that they want to go off and study “painting”! But they always said, if it’s want you want to do then do it. My partner is incredibly supportive and has attended exhibitions and events with me, helped me put up my work…and take it down. Ferried my work here, there and everywhere and has sat with me night after night when I am updating my website, writing blog posts or doing interviews!! I have been very lucky that the most important people in my life have always been very supportive, I probably don’t tell them that enough!
PS: What has been your proudest moment of your life as an Artist, so far?
EBW: Erm, that’s a hard one to answer – I was incredibly proud when I put on my degree show, I set a real challenge for myself for it, over 30 paintings to create the effect in the space that I wanted….I couldn’t quite believe that I pulled it off. I was also tremendously proud that I had work shown on Broadway in New York as part of the Art takes Times Square event last year. My work was voted for by a lot of people and it felt great to know that it was being shown so many thousands of miles away. In truth I really couldn’t tell you which moment has been the proudest….I think/i hope that maybe it’s still to come!
PS: Now and then a news story makes the papers where someone somewhere, for whatever motivation or reason, vandalises a piece of art on public display. How does that make you feel as an Artist?
EBW: Annoyed. I understand why people do it but I don’t agree with it. I think that those people believe that to vandalise a famous piece of artwork will bring their ’cause’ to the spotlight quickly. But I wonder if they really stopped to think about the hours, weeks, months, years that can be spent on a piece of work, and that there isn’t another way that they can bring their argument to a more public forum which doesn’t involve destroying someone’s hard work.
PS: I’m obsessed with Ophelia by Millais. My grandmother painted her own version of it once and I love that also. Both pictures haunt me (not my grandmother as she’s living ‘south of the river’) and I wish that I could have painted either of those. Is there a specific painting hanging in a gallery somewhere that you wish you had painted, or vandalised?
EBW: I don’t think that there is a painting that I wish I had made, but there are several works that I wish I could jump in the Tardis and go back to watch being painted. The Sistine Chapel for one, I was so overwhelmed by the magnitude of human endeavour that I stood in there and cried, ridiculous I know but I was totally blown away by it. Anything, anything by Turner. I would love to have seen the way he worked, particularly on his later works where his eyesight was failing him. The way that he built up layers of translucent colour are just wonderful. They are timeless and I would love to know if he knew just how good they were as he was painting them.
PS: What are the toughest things facing young Artists today?
EBW: There are a number of struggles facing young artists today. First of all exposure, the internet can be a wonderful platform to get you work seen but with thousands of other people doing the same it is difficult to get your work to stand out in a very big crowd. I also think that the relationship between artist and gallery is changing where galleries now require up front payment from artists to show their work, rather than the traditional commission taken for sold work. For many artists it is impossible especially with many galleries charging hundreds of pounds per metre of wall/floor space, to generate the amount of money needed to exhibit their work.
PS: Are they the same things that would have affected the likes of Millais in his time, or is the 21st Century wildly different in the art world?
EBW: Perhaps, I’m sure that with every generation there are struggles to be had – I’m sure that they would probably look at the internet and say “who needs a gallery?”. Perhaps the struggle is necessary to focus the artist.
PS: What advice would you give to someone starting out, or thinking of following in your footsteps?
EBW: Do it. If you want to be an artist then just get to work. It is tremendously hard work, to be seen you need to self-publicise, which comes easier to some than others. If you don’t want your work to be seen and it’s for your own enjoyment then do what makes you happy, but try not to ever get too comfortable. If you don’t challenge yourself with your work then it will get boring. A collector when buying a piece of my work several weeks ago said that “it spoke to his soul”, to hear that something you have created connects with another human being in that way is fantastic, there’s nothing like it. If you need to create then create.
PS: What are you working on now and how did the idea of it come to you?
EBW: I’m working on a painting of the West Gate in the Roman wall in Colchester. I’ve always enjoyed walking through it on my way into the town centre, one day as I walked I ran my hand across the wall and thought if only I could see what these bricks have seen? It gave me an idea to paint a layered landscape showing not only what we see now but what is beneath, the story of a landscape.
PS: What is your aspiration?
EBW: To become a professional artist. If I could paint full time it would be phenomenal, I work towards it all the time. My out there aspiration…that one day I could walk into a gallery space and see one of my landscapes hung in the same room as a Turner. He is my absolute hero, to have a piece of my work in the presence of such a great master, would certainly be the achievement of a lifetime.
PS: If people wanted to collaborate with you, commission a piece of art, view your work, buy your work, promote you, represent you, include it in an exhibition… How do they all get in touch with you?
EBW: Through my website at http://www.oilypalette.co.uk, you would be able to email me from here or see the link through to my studio page and blogs. Alternatively I am on Twitter @eve_whittington, which I am on all the time so this would be a more immediate way to get in touch.”
IF YOU KNOW PEOPLE THAT ARE CREATIVE, MOVE IN CREATIVE CIRCLES, OR MAY BE INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH EVE OR BUYING HER WORK… PLEASE FORWARD, SHARE OR REPOST!! – Penegrin Shaw.
