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| THE VISITOR by Amy Austin |
Amy Austin received the Young Artist award (for artists under 30) in ‘Works on Paper’ exhibition at the Gallery at Green and Stone earlier in the year. Her watercolour and ink piece THE VISITOR caught the judges attention with its intriguing narrative.
We spoke to Amy to learn more about her work.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your practice?
I live in Eastbourne on the south coast and studied at Brighton University and the Royal Drawing School. I’m currently studying for my Masters in Fine Art at Brighton with my focus on my painting practice. My practice has transformed over the last few years from needing a structure or clear outcome to being intuitive and process based. I find it quite interesting that this has happened as I am someone who finds planning and routine necessary to be able to feel in control, however my art has become the place where I let that control go. I see my work as a collaboration between myself and the materials I am using, whether that is watercolour or oil paint, I let the material start the conversation. I then see my role as a weaver who pulls out the images that come to me through the paint, letting stories uncover themselves whilst building worlds for the viewer to escape into.
Can you tell us a little more about the intriguing narrative behind THE VISITOR?
I like that the narrative behind this piece is ambiguous. Which person in the work is “the visitor”? My gut tends to see the girl on the right being the visitor, as if she has accidentally found herself in this alternate space where another, unknown being, resides. Does this being know she is there looking in on their world? How has she got there? These are questions I don’t have answers to, or at least the answers may change depending on the day. What I think this work communicates though, is the sense of stepping in on something otherworldly, something that is at odds with your entire world view. I see it as a moment of distinct change, there was before this moment and there will be after this moment, but ultimately things are now different for both of the beings in this work. Lastly, the bird swooping down brings a glimpse of a world the viewer understands, and helps add a recognisable element to the work which otherwise is completely imagined.
THE VISITOR is created in watercolour and ink, how did you choose which paper would be suitable for the composition?
When I use water-based mediums I always go for a hot press paper. Although my work is intuitive and I like to loosen my sense of control through the process, I find cold press or rough papers don’t let the paint behave in the way that works for me. The flatness of hot press lets the paint reveal its qualities, especially if there is a separation of pigments that can be highlighted by the paper. It also allows for fine details, as I have in this piece of work, that I find difficult to achieve with the same effect on other papers.
Your fascination with storytelling, folklore, and mythology is evident in your artwork. Can you share a specific myth or folklore that has profoundly influenced your creative process, and how do you translate these narratives into visual elements within your pieces?
There are so many stories I could choose for this question that it’s hard to give you just one! One of the retellings that had a profound effect on me was Kae Tempest’s book Hold Your Own which follows the story of Tiresias and the transformations throughout their life from child to man to woman to prophet. Each transformation comes with either a physical or emotional upheaval and there is something about the way that Kae Tempest writes that grabs your soul and refuses to let go.
My way of translating these elements into my work is less illustrative than it sounds. It is more about absorbing as much information or research as I can about a subject or story before I go to paint or draw. I find then that the stories or characters pull themselves into my work subconsciously, as if they have travelled from my head to my hand.
The female experience is a central theme in your work. Can you tell us more about this? Are there particular archetypes or mythological figures that consistently find their way into your art?
There is a vulnerability about identifying as female that is difficult to communicate succinctly if it has not been experienced. I have spent a lot of time feeling as if these vulnerabilities have hindered my ability to enjoy experiencing the world in the way I would like, of feeling safe, secure and listened to. As a chronically ill person, who has endometriosis and fibromyalgia, I have spent far too long at the doctors and in hospitals trying to advocate for myself, to be listened to, and for my pain to be taken seriously. A lot of this is because the conditions I have are more likely to be found in people who were born female and there is an inherent bias in institutions around the way women experience pain. I also spent two years in a psychiatric ward as a teenager, where the majority of the patients and nurses around me were female. These experiences may not come across in my work explicitly, but they are all there and I think show in the fragility and delicacy in my work. I tend not to know whether there are specific figures that consistently find their way into my work as I am painting, it isn’t until I look back over pieces that I see certain figures start to reappear.
Your artwork is described as a conduit between ethereal realms and the tangible world. How do you see your role as an artist in bridging these realms, and what emotions or reactions do you hope to evoke in viewers who immerse themselves in your visual storytelling?
I see my role as providing a form of escape from the reality we inhabit. The world is a tough place to be in all the time, so in the same way that people like to escape into books, video games and films, I hope to provide a sense of stepping into a space that doesn’t come with the same responsibilities, pressures or worries that reality does. For many people there is a question about why we should care about art, especially when we live in a time of multiple crises both national and international. But storytelling has been the way that humans communicate hope, adversity and strength throughout history and I don’t think our need for this has changed. What I hope that people get from my work is a place to jump into, a softening of the everyday so that we can give way to a moment of imagination and the fantastical.
Looking ahead, are there specific themes or projects you are excited to explore in the future, or new mediums you are considering incorporating into your artistic practice?
Currently I am working on my masters, my focus is on rituals, witchcraft and traditional crafts and how these can intersect with painting. I find the research aspect of my work just as exciting as the painting part, and discovering articles and books that discuss these themes feels like discovering pieces of sea glass on the beach. My work at the moment is in oil, a relatively new medium for me (compared to my experience with watercolours!) and what I find interesting is that my technique in oil reflects the way watercolour works. I work in thin layers, building up delicate areas of colour before going in with a dry brush technique to pull out the shapes that I want to, trying to ensure I don’t overwork or overload the canvas with paint. It’s always exciting to be exploring new techniques and being curious is such an important part of my practice so that I don’t get bored, I will always be willing to play in my work.
To see more of Amy Austin's work:
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