Live with Kate Taylor & Becky Smith
This week, Wyecliffe are excited to bring to you in-depth interviews from nature-inspired artist, Becky Smith and abstract-creator, Kate Taylor. Both share an insight into their creative process as well as starting out or developing your own style. In exclusive interviews, both artists also provide their top tips for getting creative;
“Structurally I took inspiration from deficit interiors; broken plaster board exposing wooden beams, in keeping with the industrial aspect that influence a lot of the work. I then started to think about opposing ideas - ‘new and old’ and ‘life and death’ were the original working titles and this is where the theme developed,"
Lhouette
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... strewn across the plaster and firmly in the foreground is chaotic life and messy interpretations. The pop culture references are deliberately ambiguous and even random with some much darker ones too. I liked the idea of contrasting this against the palette background in something a bit more zen, clean, golden and rich”
Interview with Becky Smith
From a young age, Becky Smith has always had a passion for painting, all the way through to studying at Wimbledon College of Arts. Becky turned her passion into a career, pursuing a more practical ‘hands-on’ professional path by building a following in the world of contemporary galleries. Now, for the first time, we get exclusive access into the artist's studio and creative process that has harnessed a large following of nature-inspired collectors and up-coming artists who want to immerse themselves in the artistic world of mother nature.
Tutorial with Becky Smith
Becky draws on inspiration from her travels to exotic countries as she began to study wildlife art techniques, soon developing into her mystical bird of paradise works: dreamlike, vivid landscapes with echoes of the lucid jungle works of Henri Rousseau and Brett-Livingstone Strong. Becky found bringing these mesmerising, colourful scenes to life right in front of her became a satisfying therapeutic technique which she goes in to more detail...
This week, Wyecliffe are excited to bring to you in-depth interviews from nature-inspired artist, Becky Smith and abstract-creator, Kate Taylor. Both share an insight into their creative process as well as starting out or developing your own style. In exclusive interviews, both artists also provide their top tips for getting creative;
INTERVIEW WITH BECKY SMITH
From a young age, Becky Smith has always had a passion for painting, all the way through to studying at Wimbledon College of Arts. Becky turned her passion into a career, pursuing a more practical ‘hands-on’ professional path by building a following in the world of contemporary galleries. Now, for the first time, we get exclusive access into the artist's studio and creative process that has harnessed a large following of nature-inspired collectors and up-coming artists who want to immerse themselves in the artistic world of mother nature.
TUTORIAL WITH BECKY SMITH
Becky draws on inspiration from her travels to exotic countries as she began to study wildlife art techniques, soon developing into her mystical bird of paradise works: dreamlike, vivid landscapes with echoes of the lucid jungle works of Henri Rousseau and Brett-Livingstone Strong. Becky found bringing these mesmerising, colourful scenes to life right in front of her became a satisfying therapeutic technique which she goes in to more detail...
Starting with the roots
"Sometimes, it's the artistic journey that teaches you a lot about your destination"
- Becky Smith
Colouring in the petals
Colouring in the petals is an important element of any tree-painting creative process, with most of the attention drawn to the colourful features of leaves, Becky's dabbing motion is the technique that adds a twinkle to her petals. The artist will proceed to incorporate gentle dabs of white as her initial pink tone is still wet, and then using a thin paint brush, Becky will give her petals an outline to give that sense of uniqueness as she quotes; "I work heavily on the details, not missing a trick and giving undivided attention to all features involved."
Metal leaf application
A feature that is seen implicitly applied to all her artworks, including Becky Smith's space galaxy collection and metal sheet art, the artist incorporates gold leaf at a time when her petals are dry enough in order for the leaf to stick. A tip from Becky is to crumple up the leaf rather than neatly applying as she says "the texture of gold leaf is more discernible on the eye when you don't handle it with care". A messier approach not only brings out the best in your artwork but it makes the creative process more fun.
Deciding on further elements
Becky Smith mentions about the power of every up-coming artist's creative process in order to find out one's best techniques, artistic elements and challenges to build on. For Becky, the foundations of her trees have allowed her to branch into different areas of incorporation... literally. Combining her planets akin to her galaxy collection, the nature-inspired artist has attempted many ideas and techniques in order to confidently incorporate features and expand on her portfolio.
INTERVIEW WITH KATE TAYLOR
Kate Taylor is an abstract artist born in Cambridge, England, and now works out of her studio in Toronto, Ontario. She was taught painting by the internationally renowned artist, Paterson Ewen. Kate is committed to capturing colour and energy in her mixed media acrylic paintings, working the negative space. She often works with an Epoxy coating to increase the play of light and reflection.
What type of artist do you see yourself as?
"For a while now, I have been drawn to the commissioned avenue helping to create paintings that fills the client's needs and desires of spaces. Of course, there has to be a sense of understanding about my artistic style, what this entails, and if it works with the aurora of a clients' room. Normally, however, clients are well aware of my brightly-infused colour pallet to set the tone for my abstract art. I would often liaise with the client to find an outcome that all parties can enjoy, I see myself as flexible in my medium choices given my desire to break new boundaries. Therefore, commissioned pieces can range from acrylics on canvas to wooden panels as a background or epoxy coating to cover the top.
What are your inspirations? / How do you come up with original ideas you want to explore through your art?
"Travel and nature are my biggest influences, it can become difficult to draw up ideas as both elements right now but it has been a propelling challenge and something I thrive on, creating artwork through abstracts using bright colours is self-fulfilling knowing that it can brighten up somebody's mood and space."
How has your studio set-up changed since Quarantine? What does it look like now?
"I have two studios. One personal studio for when I can think about my projects uniquely and a shared-studio with 6 other abstracts painters where we collectively come together and create ideas, share creative processes. Both spaces have different benefits, the shared is more a product of my artistic progression with a desire to create more works with a bigger team and at a greater scale... Start with the personal space to establish your own ideas if you are an up-coming artist."
What would you suggest to people who are taking art as a hobby or full-time job?
"Go with something you love. I put great emphasis on the word 'you' since it's your style and technique that will propel you on, not someone's recommendation or opinion. For example, when I do commissioned artwork, I would always offer a style to a client, if they don't like it, then we explore common ground for something, but generally, I won't incorporate dark colours in my paintings since that is not a style a I like, it's important to find happiness in whatever activity you invest most of your day in. Experiment with different mediums, trial and error and just keep pushing until your are entirely content."
Starting with the roots
The beginning stages of Becky Smith's creative process is the most critical as her dotted line central on the metal sheet paves the way for the nature-inspired elements that come next. Building layers of dark-toned branches from the bottom up, Becky always has an artistic vision in mind of what the final outcome will look like. Next, Becky applies gentle brush strokes of the colour white to add depth to the structure of her tree.
"Sometimes, it's the artistic journey that teaches you a lot about your destination"
- Becky Smith
Colouring in the petals
Colouring in the petals is an important element of any tree-painting creative process, with most of the attention drawn to the colourful features of leaves, Becky's dabbing motion is the technique that adds a twinkle to her petals. The artist will proceed to incorporate gentle dabs of white as her initial pink tone is still wet, and then using a thin paint brush, Becky will give her petals an outline to give that sense of uniqueness as she quotes; "I work heavily on the details, not missing a trick and giving undivided attention to all features involved."
Metal leaf application
A feature that is seen implicitly applied to all her artworks, including Becky Smith's space galaxy collection and metal sheet art, the artist incorporates gold leaf at a time when her petals are dry enough in order for the leaf to stick. A tip from Becky is to crumple up the leaf rather than neatly applying as she says "the texture of gold leaf is more discernible on the eye when you don't handle it with care". A messier approach not only brings out the best in your artwork but it makes the creative process more fun.
Deciding on further elements
Becky Smith mentions about the power of every up-coming artist's creative process in order to find out one's best techniques, artistic elements and challenges to build on. For Becky, the foundations of her trees have allowed her to branch into different areas of incorporation... literally. Combining her planets akin to her galaxy collection, the nature-inspired artist has attempted many ideas and techniques in order to confidently incorporate features and expand on her portfolio.
Interview with Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor is an abstract artist born in Cambridge, England, and now works out of her studio in Toronto, Ontario. She was taught painting by the internationally renowned artist, Paterson Ewen. Kate is committed to capturing colour and energy in her mixed media acrylic paintings, working the negative space. She often works with an Epoxy coating to increase the play of light and reflection.
What type of artist do you see yourself as?
"For a while now, I have been drawn to the commissioned avenue helping to create paintings that fills the client's needs and desires of spaces. Of course, there has to be a sense of understanding about my artistic style, what this entails, and if it works with the aurora of a clients' room. Normally, however, clients are well aware of my brightly-infused colour pallet to set the tone for my abstract art. I would often liaise with the client to find an outcome that all parties can enjoy, I see myself as flexible in my medium choices given my desire to break new boundaries. Therefore, commissioned pieces can range from acrylics on canvas to wooden panels as a background or epoxy coating to cover the top.
What are your inspirations? / How do you come up with original ideas you want to explore through your art?
"Travel and nature are my biggest influences, it can become difficult to draw up ideas as both elements right now but it has been a propelling challenge and something I thrive on, creating artwork through abstracts using bright colours is self-fulfilling knowing that it can brighten up somebody's mood and space."
How has your studio set-up changed since Quarantine? What does it look like now?
"I have two studios. One personal studio for when I can think about my projects uniquely and a shared-studio with 6 other abstracts painters where we collectively come together and create ideas, share creative processes. Both spaces have different benefits, the shared is more a product of my artistic progression with a desire to create more works with a bigger team and at a greater scale... Start with the personal space to establish your own ideas if you are an up-coming artist."
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What would you suggest to people who are taking art as a hobby or full-time job?
"Go with something you love. I put great emphasis on the word 'you' since it's your style and technique that will propel you on, not someone's recommendation or opinion. For example, when I do commissioned artwork, I would always offer a style to a client, if they don't like it, then we explore common ground for something, but generally, I won't incorporate dark colours in my paintings since that is not a style a I like, it's important to find happiness in whatever activity you invest most of your day in. Experiment with different mediums, trial and error and just keep pushing until your are entirely content."
