STUDIO SPECIAL
I just leave the painting out in my studio, and look at it out of the corner of my eye. When it doesn’t seem to need anything else, it’s done. It’s as if the waters have closed up after all the activity. I like challenging myself about the various stages when a painting might be done. Does it always have to come up to the same intensity, or are there variations? Sometimes it’s like having a different voice for each painting.
How many hours do you spend in the studio? I don’t like getting up very early so I tend to get to the studio around 10.00. I try not to stay beyond 7.30 at night because I tend to get tired without noticing and then I can get really destructive. So I’ve learnt over the years to watch whether I’m still fresh, and if I’m not fresh I go home. I usually work six days a week. Although I have a great studio in many ways, it’s a somewhat bleak environment – I can’t see out of the windows; sometimes the heating breaks down; there’s the occasional mouse...
You mentioned that if you get tired, you start getting self-destructive. What does that translate into? If I’m tired and working on a painting, I make a mark and then I think it’s not good enough. I start taking it off, and then a bit more of the painting comes off. And before I know where I am, I’ve got the tub of white spirit out and the paper towels, and I’m wiping the whole thing off. That’s happened more times than I care to admit.
with jazz improvisation – there is a structure, even if it’s just a predetermined set of colours. But I don’t know how it’s going to end up.
How does the process work? Sometimes I start with a flat colour and leave it for a while to see if I have another idea. Sometimes I take a digital image of a painting I’ve already made and change all the colours in Photoshop in order to get a road map for another painting, although it
usually has to be abandoned at some point. I find that a very exciting way to work. I’ve got some handrails if I need them, but at the same time I’m free to go in any direction.
How long does the process take? Anything from a few weeks to six months. One painting took five years.
And how do you know when you’re done? I take a while to know when I’m done.
So is there creative destruction? Oh yes. There is a lot of undoing and redoing. Sometimes in taking something off you see an opportunity to do something else. The trick is not to take everything off.
How would you like to be thought of? All I can do is make paintings and hope that people find them interesting or enjoyable. My control ends once they leave the studio.
This is an edited extract taken from Sanctuary – Britain’s Artists and their Studios published on 12 March by Thames & Hudson, RRP £48.
www.thamesandhudson.com
Artists & Illustrators 35
© TRANSGLOBE PUBLISHING, PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBIN FRIEND
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