Interview with Karen Shapley

Here is our next interview with Karen Shapley… Find out what really inspires her!!!!

1. Describe yourself in five words and how would your friends describe you
(in five)!!
In five words I would describe myself as energtic, quirky, humourous, serious enthusiastic
friends would describe me as enthusiastic artistic a bit wacky  a horder and hopefully fun!

2. Your art concentrates mostly on landscapes and portraits what drives you
to create these images?
n/a

 

3. What is your favourite type media to work with and why?
clay and textiles.
I love the imediacy of building with clay, you can create something reasonably quickly with clay its flexible, fairly generous and allows me a certain freedom with form. Textiles I love for their tactile quality they add another dimension to the work enable it to become a sculpture rather than just a jug.

4. What type of processes do you employ to create your work?
With clay I use slabs of clay embossing with texture ,use of coloured slips and sprigs to add further detail. Vintage textiles are stitched and pressed and stuffed , using bonding of layers and frills to create  detail.

 

5. What and where are your favourite art galleries to visit?
I love the V&A the ceramics department with all its crazy ceramics. We used to be so inventive and imaginative adding flowers and palm trees to vases and jugs. I also like the textile department upstairs where you can ponder quietlt the old embroideries and stumpwork. Its old fashioned and allows you to escape the tourist and draw and marvel at old skills.

 

6. Are there other contemporary artists who captivate you right now? Whose
work inspires you?
I have always loved Juilie Arkell’s work it has that freedom to make items that have a childlike quality if thats what I want  attitude, as well as being humourous. I also like Tilke Schwarz for her observations on everyday life and her skill as an embroiderer. Also the french artist marie Ducate juts because of her inventivness and sheer determination not to conform…there is a theme appearing here!!!

 

7. What do you think the future has in store for your work, do you have
anything new you are working on you would like to mention?
I am working on a new collection and ethos called ‘Find nomore’ I have taken to vintage in a big way as well as upcycling . i scour charity shops and ebay for my clothes altering to fit and adding personal detail loving the quality of old tailoring. I have a new collection of characters which will be half ceramic and half textile . My work has always embodied the found fabric or objects loving the quality of the old . So its about finding no more as my clothes so you will find no more once one is made it is unique with its own person . Fabrics and details no longer available once used.

 

8. Where do you go for inspiration?
I find inspiration from collecting old ceramics, objects found in charity shops. Research on old ceramics and the craziness of past objects made. New work revolves more around story telling and creating something unique.

 

9. Where is your favourite place to create?
In my head , I am a day dreamer and can disappear into my own thoughts once inspired by something I have seen!

 

10. Do you have a favourite piece you’ve created? If so, why?
Yee Ha  he is not on show as yet. He was part of an exhibtion I did in the Spring at the Form Gallery. He is a donkey pulling a truck. He has ideas of granduer and  wants really to be a horse in the wild west hence his name yeeha. However  the sign on the truck says go slow as he is a donkey who goes slow ( there was also a clock in the truck and time often goes slow!)

 

11. What’s your ideal working day?
Walk my  jack russell cross Poppy in the woods dreaming of the character i am about to make. Arrive at work about 10 and then work solid no breaks till 3 when I will go home have food cuppa tea before back out for a walk thinking of the day …..

 

12. What would you like to be working on in 12 months time?
I am not sure I dont plan that far ahead. My work develops so I keep an open mind and let me see what unfolds next!

Interview with Clare Calfield

 

Here is our next interview with the talented painter Clare Calfield… Find out what really inspires her!!!!

1. Describe yourself in five words and how would your friends describe you (in five)!!

Always searching for interesting thing !

2. Your art concentrates mostly on landscapes and portraits what drives you to create these images?

I love the buzz of the city, there’s always so much happening & so much to inspire me.My painting allow me to document and record my experiences of the places I ve travelled to. It’s also great to see how other people relate to the scenes I ve created.

 

3. What is your favourite type media to work with and why?

I love mixed-me dig, avariety of watercolour, acrylic,dip pen & ink, pencil,pastel crayons……

I strive to create spontaneous lively linework and having a variety of media to hand helps me to achieve this.

 

4. What type of processes do you employ to create your work?

I combine the processes of  drawing, painting & collage I am also a printmaker too,creating original screenprints and drypoints.

 

5. What and where are your favourite art galleries to visit?

The craft centre + design gallery,Leeds 1853 Gallery Salts Mill, Saltaire Cambridge Contemporary Art / The Red Door Gallery Edinborough

 

6. Are there other contemporary artists who captivate you right now? Whose work inspires you?

Peter Clarkes quirky dog collages beautifully made out of collaged ephemera. –The illustration work of Emily Sutton – Sue Blackwell

 

7. What do you think the future has in store for your work, do you have anything new you are working on you would like to mention?

Hopefully I’ll continue producing paintings on my favourite cities –Paris.New York&Venice, as well as travelling to lots of new I locations to inspire me again and again!

 

8. Where do you go for inspiration?

Vintage fairs, Antique Shop, My book case,Venice,Paris&New Yorkand (Discovering New Cities I’ve not been too…..)

 

9. Where is your favourite place to create?

My studio is where I feel most at home and able to create, but producing those initial drawings in my sketch book whilst in a city is really exciting.

 

10. Do you have a favourite piece you’ve created? If so, why?

“Skating in central park” This piece was a challenage for me, to do aManhattanpainting but without putting in a mass of New York Yellow Taxis, I got round this by having a bustling ice rink full of little skaters instead!

11. What’s your ideal working day?

Working away in my studio on a specially commissioned painting, I love the challenge of working to a client’s brief knowing how much the piece will mean to them when it’s complete.

12. What would you like to be working on in 12 months time?

I am going to Norway in 2012 to visit the world’s most northern city – tromso I’m excited about what direction this may take my work in…………

Interview with the talented painter Carol Saunderson

Here is our next interview with the talented painter Carol Saunderson… Find out what really inspires her!!!!

1 Describe yourself in five words and how would your friends describe you (in five)!!

 Me

 Interested, enthusiastic, eccentric, diverse, imaginative

 Friends

(These are the polite ones they came up with)  – Eclectic, Humorous, Passionate, Visionary, Generous

2 Your art concentrates mostly on landscapes and portraits.  What drives you to create these images?

 I paint portraits because it is a privilege. I find people amazing and intriguing.  Each subject is unique and painting a person captures them in a way that a photograph doesn’t, in that it isn’t a snapshot of one moment in time but rather a collection of thoughts and observations of that individual.  I discovered as early as art college that however I see that person will be portrayed in the finished work.  Somehow the painter’s thoughts are translated in to the painting at a sub-conscious level.  I like that.  It seems almost alchemical!

 The abstract landscapes which I will be showing at the Fulham Palace Art Fair are straight out of my subconscious.  They are an amalgamation of places in which I have lived or to which I have travelled.  They feature characters, buildings and events from my life in symbolic form and tell stories based on those elements. Through this work I am able to explore my love of colour and endless fascination with the way that different colours interact.

3 What is your favourite type of media to work with and why?

 At the moment it’s acrylic paint as it dries so quickly and means that I can use multiple layers, thus intensifying the colour and creating interesting pattern effects.  It is also very forgiving for techniques such as scratching and sanding, meaning I can experiment with different textures.

 4 What type of processes do you employ to create your work?

 All sorts and I’m always experimenting to come up with more!  I have a large range of brushes in all different sizes and textures, but also numerous implements that I collect with which to scratch, scrape, drag and draw on the painting.  I put paint on and rub it off with rags, I flick paint at it and throw water at it on occasion.

5 What and where are your favourite art galleries to visit?

I did my Foundation at the art college in Cambridge and two of my favourite galleries are there.  Kettles Yard is on Castle Street in Cambridge. It is a beautiful and unique house containing a wonderful collection of 20th century art. It was founded by Jim Ede as a place where visitors would ‘find a home and a welcome, a refuge of peace and order, of the visual arts and of music.’  I’ve loved it ever since I was taken there as a student.  It’s packed full of treasures!

The Fitzwilliam Museum was my other regular haunt as a student.  I can spend happily spend an afternoon there anytime.  It has a wonderful permanent collection and numerous exciting temporary shows.

 A new discovery for me has been the gallery and grounds at Compton Verney in Warwickshire.  I went to see the recent Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis exhibition there.  They also have a fantastic collection of Folk Art.  I will be visiting again very soon!

6 Are there other contemporary artists who captivate you right now?  Whose work inspires you?

It’s difficult to choose but I’d have to say Barbara Rae, as her work with colour is amazing and the ceramicist John Maltby for his beautiful simplicity and use of pattern.  I really appreciate the joyfulness of Elaine Pamphilon’s paintings too.  In terms of portraiture I’d say Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Alison Watt and Chuck Close.  Chuck Close is particularly interesting as his photographic large-scale portraits are made up of thousands of tiny abstracts.

Generally speaking there are many wonderful artists whose work inspires me.  Most of them are from the 20th Century.  Craigie Aitchison, Mark Rothko, Henri Matisse, William Scott, Ben Nicholson and the glorious Roaul Dufy to name but a few.

 7 What do you think the future has in store for your work, do you have anything new you are working on which you would like to mention?

 It’s difficult to say as my work is always developing.  It seems to have a life of its own!  I would like to think that my style and confidence will continue to strengthen and that I will be working on more large-scale pieces. 

8 Where do you go for inspiration?

I don’t really have to go anywhere as I live in a beautiful Lodge cottage on the Staunton Harold Estate in Leicestershire.  We are surrounded by fields, have a herd of cows as our next door neighbours and I can walk to work along a mile long lane which takes me beside a lake and in front of Staunton Harold Hall.  There is so much to see everyday.

Otherwise I love the North Norfolk coast of my childhood at Brancaster, Holkham, Wells or Cley where my aunt used to live.  A trip to the Cotswolds is always a pleasure – quintessential English countryside and architecture always does it for me!

Reading is my other great source of inspiration.  There’s nothing like a good novel to get the imagination going.  Salley Vickers, Jeanette Winterson, Jostein Gaarder and Virginia Woolf are always magical.  At the moment I’m reading “All Passion Spent” by Vita Sackville-West and it’s a bit of a revelation.  A very poetic and thoughtful book about an elderly woman looking back on her life and her early ambitions to become a painter.

9 Where is your favourite place to create?

I am very fortunate to have a studio that is housed in a converted Georgian stable block in the grounds of the beautiful Staunton Harold Estate in Leicestershire.  I share this space with textile artist Michelle Holmes and my characterful whippet Rosie.  Being based in the middle of the countryside is very important to me and we walk Rosie twice a day in what is now part of the new National Forest.  I find that, in order to do my work, my mind needs the space and the visual beauty that these surroundings provide.

 10 Do you have a favourite piece you’ve created?  If so, why?

 I have several, each because they mean something to me personally.  There is a large square painting called “The Safe Path” which is an abstract landscape based on a walk on the estate here at Staunton.  It hangs in my home.  The others are also personal – a portrait of my late father and another of my crazy dog!

11 What’s your ideal working day?

One with no interruptions!#

12 What would you like to be working on in 12 months time?

A sell-out show!

Interview with the talented painter Kirsten Jones

 

Here is our next interview with the talented painter Kirsten Jones… Find out what really inspires her!!!!1. How would your friends describe you in five words?
Passionate, motivated, extravagant, individual and fun!… 2. Your art encompasses many themes and ideas but a re-occurring feature in
the works are collected objects, why do you find this so captivating?

I have always liked collections, whether it be stamps, crockery, shoes, museum artifacts, sweet jars or jewellery. Essentially a collection for me is objects that are the same but each slightly different and detailed small things hold a huge fascination for me. Each object has a memory of a time or place associated with it and these stories inspire me to create my art works

3. What is your favorite type media to work with and why?

I enjoy collage and washes of gesso and acrylic. Quality acrylic paint is wonderful to paint with, and once dried it acts as a permanent background colour on which to work.

4. What type of processes do you employ to create your work?

I start in my sketchbook and work on an idea wherever I go, at all times of day or night. I then collect the collage materials to use as background. The collage part of my work can take weeks….working on a board primed with gesso to arrange each fragment and label. Once this is all glued down, then the painting begins…..

5. What and where are your favorite art galleries to visit?
MOMA in New York… it’s so beautifully designed and the collections are fresh and exciting… plus the restaurant serves food that’s an art form in itself!

6. Are there other contemporary artists who captivate you right now? Whose
work inspires you?
Robert Rauschenberg… for his spontaneous eclectic free style and ambitious scale…also I bought several pieces by Australian artist Natalie wood who makes beautiful collaged assemblages based on colour.

7. Where do you go for inspiration?
On holiday… whether that’s a weekend in York or 8 weeks in Thailand… new places always inspire new ideas

8. Where is your favorite place to create?
In my studio, or on my boat… a 30ft classic launch, its very calm and tranquil, just me and the ducks!

9. Do you have a favorite piece you’ve created? If so, why?
I love them all for different reasons, but my recent piece sweet shop holds a special place… it’s very nostalgic but at the same time it’s also about where I am in my life at the moment. I realized that my paintings have a strong autobiographical element.

10. What’s your ideal working day?
Coffee, toast, collage and eBay followed by painting till late… with a lovely lunch in there somewhere…

11. What would you like to be working on in 12 months time?
A show… in my new gallery…

Interview Michelle Holmes

 

We are delighted to share our recent interview Michelle Holmes to give us an insight into Michelle’s world of ‘Textile Art’….

1 Describe yourself in five words and how would your friends describe you (in five)!!
Me Tenacious, Imaginative, Contemplative, Creative, Rural
Friends (These are the polite ones they came up with) – Inspirational, Individual, Intuitive, Creative, Sensitive
…
2 Your art encompasses many themes and ideas but a re- occurring feature in the work are beautifully stitched ‘Figures’. What drives you to create these images?…..
I like people watching and I love stories, my work combines the two. I am creating little worlds with characters for the viewer to interact with and make up their own story, enter into the other world. I aspire to make my figures timeless.

3 What is your favourite type of media to work with and why?……
I like to stitch onto natural fabrics, linen, cotton and silk mainly because of the way their surfaces reflect light. I particularly like to work with heavy weight Calico which when dyed provides a lovely soft base. I am constantly collecting pieces of cloth for appliqués onto my pictures and find friends and clients pass small scraps/old clothes on to me. Recently I have begun using ‘Cyanotype’ better known as Blueprint fabric for my backgrounds.

4 What type of processes do you employ to create your work?…….
I tend to begin with a Calico base; I sometimes paint the surface with a resist solution to create marks representing a landscape. I then dye the piece. On to this I add appliquéd patches which I machine stitch into place. I free machine embroider figures onto this and finish with hand stitching in Linen thread and sometimes beads.

5 What and where are your favourite art galleries to visit?……
American Museum, Bath Folk Museum, Compon Verney, Warwickshire Kettles Yard, Cambridge

6 Are there other contemporary artists who captivate you right now? Whose work inspires you? Janet Bolton, my all time textile hero. John Maltby, Potter, I just adore and own a little angel above a house which is one of my treasures. Susan Disley, Potter, So beautiful and calm. Mary Newcombe, Painter, She died a few years ago. I saw a large exhibition of hers in Nottingham and fell in love. Her paintings are often based on the things she saw around her in Norfolk and remind me of where I live and have my studio………

7 What do you think the future has in store for your work; do you have anything new you are working on which you would like to mention?………
I recently created a patchwork quilt for the Quilt Show at the NEC in Birmingham and was excited to work on a larger scale. I approached the piece in a similar way to my smaller panels but found it interesting to work on several layers and for the piece to have a functional dimension as something to be handled. I would like to continue experimenting with this.

8 Where do you go for inspiration?……. I work in a very lovely valley on the edge of Derbyshire and find the farm land, woods, lake and wildlife a constant source of inspiration. It also contains a National Trust property and several footpaths so there are visitors some regular and very eccentric. I also find Guernsey and the tiny island of Herm and North Norfolk feature heavily my coastal inspirations. I take sketchbooks everywhere with me just in case I see a character which could feature in my work.

9 Where is your favourite place to create?………
In my studio, surrounded by my books, materials and collections of objects.

10 Do you have a favourite piece you’ve created? If so, why?……….
Yes. It is a piece I made a few years ago and is called ‘My little house by the sea’. The piece was made after a visit to Norfolk and is based on a black and white photograph I saw in a museum of a little house once owned by Queen Alexander which no longer exists. This piece came together quickly and captures the magical remote quality of Norfolk. I was pleased with the beach as I am fascinated by how each tide brings in new shells and sand and makes the whole beach fresh and new. I think this is a hopeful piece and I wanted the embroidered figures to represent this.

11 What’s your ideal working day?……. Bright clear and windy so I can have the doors to my studio opens to the courtyard. Carol Saunderson the painter who I share a space with and her dog ‘Rosie’ working away at their creations. Good coffee and music, maybe a film soundtrack though I am not always aware of what I am listening to. A few walks for a break and a chat to some of the other people who work at the studios around lunchtime.

12 What would you like to be working on in 12 months time? An exhibition of Quilts and a series of pieces illustrating more fully the lives of historical women travellers.

Thankyou Michelle for sharing this with us it was fascinating

Palace Art Fair 7-9th October 2011

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The Edge Gallery are delighted to be showing the work of seven talented artists at this years ‘Palace Art Fair’ in Fulham.

Each artist has been carefully selected because of their use of subject, media and inspiration and fresh approach to contemporary art. We are looking forward to seeing you there to share the experience with use at this unique event.

Fulham Palace

Bishop’s Avenue

London

SW6 6EA

Stand No 58

7th Oct 12-8.30pm

8th Oct 11-5.30pm 

9th Oct11-5.50pm

For further information contact Ian Jones on….

Tel. 07773770035

 info@theedgegallery.co.uk

 www.theedgegallery.co.uk

www.palaceartfair.co.uk