Last Picked Pumpkin

A: I think, like many people, scent has a strong link to memories and nostalgia. Whether it’s walking into an old bookshop and the smell of dust and paper reminding me of my grandparent’s house, or when my husband wears the cologne he wore for our wedding, scent has a magical ability to transport you through time. As an artist, those moments can become really important to try and replicate, the ability to transport someone to another place. 

A: My Nana gave me my first box of watercolour paints when I was very young. She used to work in a book shop that bought and sold antiquarian, second-hand books and specialist maps. It was such a magical space, my Grandad also managed the finances there behind the scenes and his office used to be buried in this warren, the walls were just piles of books on open bookshelves. It always felt like stepping into a different time in there! But they were also an art shop, and I would get to pick out a new paint brush, or some paper when I visited. 

It was my Nana’s love of painting, and her encouragement of my work that showed me how important creativity is in life.

I was unwell as a teenager and spent two years in hospital, and it was after that experience (and my now husband’s support) that gave me the courage to apply for an art foundation course when I was 21. Since then I have completed my Bachelors degree, a year with the Royal Drawing School, my Masters and am now looking to apply for a PhD. 

I feel that I am extremely lucky to have a passion in life that can mean as much to someone else as it does to me. Art is part of my everyday, it’s a part of who I am.

A: Stories are my main sources of inspiration. Usually this begins in a written form: poems, songs, novels. I take these as my starting point and then jump off from there. 

A lot of my work is also a form of a self portrait. I am telling my story, so that if others see something in my art that they connect with, perhaps they may not feel so alone.

A: Process for me is almost more important than the finished work, not that it has always been that way! Initially, I work intuitively, I let the materials do the talking. Whether it’s water based media that I let pool on the paper, or sink into material (think Helen Frankenthaler and her enormous canvases but on a smaller scale!) or my oil based work that is all about building up thin layers of paint. From there I find shapes and figures within the marks that have formed, picking out the emerging narratives that the materials have created. It’s usually at this point, where the first shapes appear that I get an idea of what the piece will be about, even if I don’t know how it will end up looking. This process has meant that I don’t have to come to a blank canvas with an idea in my head of what I want the final outcome to be and, inevitably, be disappointed with what appears!

It can almost feel like casting a spell making work in this way and there is something thrilling about not knowing what will appear or what the piece will end up looking like.

Check out more of Amy's work here