INTERVIEW | September 2022

IMAGINE GARDENS:

Alice Kemp on observing nature, balancing opposites, the antidote to flat screens and challenging the notion of ‘high’ art.

When did you first know you wanted to be an artist? Was painting always your preferred medium?

I’ve always been an artist because I have always been doing so much art. I can’t think of a specific time. It’s the main thing I did growing up and I have never really stopped. I remember being sick off school, when I was about 15, and watching a day time TV programme about Central Saint Martins and thinking I have to go there. When I was a child I wanted to work in a chocolate factory but that never happened. Luckily the art thing did and I feel very lucky to be able to call myself an artist. 

Painting has always been my preferred medium. There is nothing more satisfying to me. I have been painting for so long I don't question it, it’s just the thing I always go to.

~

You didn’t really need a pandemic to bring you closer to nature… How did your fascination with the natural world begin and how did it come to play such an important part in your practice?

I grew up in the centre of Brighton but I don’t think of the city much at all when I think of my upbringing. I spent most of my happiest memories in the countryside, in particular the South Downs (the chalk hills just outside Brighton that run parallel with the coastline). My dad taught me to look closely at things in nature caring for the smaller details and my mum taught me to look out at the bigger picture of the world, landscapes and life.

I spend a lot of time in my garden or walking in the countryside and it is during this time that I feel a sense of clarity and perspective which often inspires my next painting. I don’t think I can imitate the power of nature itself in my work, but I am inspired by the colours, textures and forms of some of the things I see. I find the fine line between the ugly and the beautiful in nature fascinating and is a subject I have been exploring more recently in my paintings.

Painting decorative subject matter such as patterns, birds and plants is often associated with craft, art that is feminine and ‘low’ art. I am, and have been for a long time, keen to challenge the notion of ‘high’ or ‘good’ and art. In the past I have referenced other forms of art that are quite often dismissed as ‘bad’ including, graffiti, tattoos, glitter, pink, purple, cats, stickers, Bob Ross, flowers, pound shop art kits, black and white art, textiles, etc.

I still remember an off-handed comment by a technician at University; I was experimenting with screen-printing flowers on top of photographs and he walked over to me and said “awwww you are making pretty pictures of flowers. How sweet”. This sort of comment would put most people off using flowers as a subject but for me I felt more of a desire to use it again and treat it as a challenge or rebellion.

Attitudes are changing but I feel gender still plays a role in the art world. It doesn’t seem fair that for male artists, painting decorative subject matter has no impact on how their work is perceived; if anything, it is often considered ground breaking and bold. Whereas women need to explain their choices or are steered towards subject matters that are more conceptual or “edgy” otherwise there is still the risk of the work being considered unintelligent, quaint or lacking depth or ability.

It is even less fair that, as a new mum, I have noticed that new-male-artist-fathers are generally taken more seriously than new-artist-mothers. I am so grateful that this is not the case for me here, that Ione & Mann had faith in me and my ability to continue my art practice. It is important to me to challenge these things.

Texture is an important element in your work alternating between flat, almost print-like surfaces and thick almost sculptural details. Would you like to tell us about your process?

Nothing beats oil paint because you can make such rich colour with thick paint. I like the contrast of the thick paint against the thin background yet I am often trying to camouflage the painted bits into the flat patterned background, usually by matching some of the forms or colours.

My work is a constant battle of opposites…adding/removing, beauty in nature/ugliness in nature, subtlety/contrast, thick/thin, representational/abstract, etc.

I like the sculptural quality of the paint against the printed background because, when looking at screens for such a large part of our daily life, it is refreshing to feel like I am adding a new dimension to this flatness.

The thick paint is also inspired by embroidery, like the embroidered studies of nature in Japanese kimono designs or William Morris' 'stumping' where he made the embroidery so thick that it came right out of the fabric.

~

How do you approach colour in your work? Do you start with a palette in mind or are the choices dictated by the subject?

I often have a colour in mind that I want to use as a starting point, for example in this series of work I wanted to mix the aubergine colour that you can see in a few of the works including the background of 'Sparrows in the Brambles'.

The colour can often be something I pick out of my subject, like the muddy yellow ochre in the mixed leaves painting, and this can be used as a starting point for the colours in the rest of the painting.

I am always battling with whether to match and camouflage the painted part into the colours of the background or contrast them, usually ending up with a bit of both. In the same way, the colours can be inspired by the subject but as the work develops other colours are added. The pattern in the background of many of my paintings is a process of chance and surprise, often resulting in unexpected tones and colours. I sometimes pick out some of these colours to use somewhere else in the painting.

Are the landscapes and natural forms you paint real or imaginary?

Very similarly to my answer above they are a bit of both. They start with careful observation but later I am more inspired by an element of a bit of the new painting as opposed to the original subject and so I often repeat this again somewhere perhaps to a different scale, colour or orientation.

The result is a strange mix of real and imaginary. Forms become more abstracted as the work develops.

~

Has becoming a teacher changed how you approach your own practice?

Yes! I am very inspired by my students. I also help students who are feeling stuck. Giving them the confidence to give something a try helps remind myself that all I need to do is set myself up and just start experimenting too. Working with a limited set up, materials and a time frame can be inspiring and liberating.

Teaching Art is an incredible way of keeping up to date with what is happening in the art world. A big part of the job is spent looking for inspiring new artists and techniques.

My students teach me new approaches and perspectives and stop me from becoming stagnant in my practice.

~

Do you listen to music while you paint? 

Yes, I love all types of music and radio, depending on the mood, BBC radio 2, 3 and 4. I must be a strange mix of a person to like all 3 as the audience seems pretty different for each.

I probably shouldn't listen to music when I paint because I kind of agree with Grayson Perry who said that when you listen to music and make art you get swept up in the music and often think the work is great....then you turn it off and realise its rubbish!

I generally need a sense of peace and clarity when I am working and this is usually to do with the space around me rather than anything else. If everything is very tidy, clean and organised then I feel more inspired. For example, I can handle working with loud noise no problem but if I haven't washed up my dishes from earlier, even if they are in a different place, I just can't seem to work as well!

~

Do you have favourite works of art? Or artists you find inspiring?  

It is hard to choose one....some of the artists that I can’t stop looking at are Walter Sickert (currently on at Tate Britain), Laura Owens, Philip Guston, Sophie Ormerod, Mary Herbert, Pablo Picasso.

~

Do you have a favourite garden? (except yours of course!)

West Dean Gardens in West Sussex - in particular the walled allotment garden. Kensington Roof garden is pretty amazing too! But as I said earlier, no one needs to travel far, nature is incredible, no matter where you are.