Image:He said the oceans were rising 2010 Acrylic on canvas 120x120cm
1 If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
Physicist. I actually have a degree in astrophysics and originally started my academic career in mathematics. My passion for it is still there, if not the up to date knowledge! Any sort of work in scientific research would be very rewarding, even being a lab minion to start.
2 Name 3 of your least favourite artists.
I don’t really have least favourites, and there’s just so many artists out there a lot won’t be my cup of tea. Usually I find artists I don’t like I just need to learn about to get an appreciation for what they’re trying to do. I have a personal bugbear with Rothko because I find most of his work very uninspiring and lacking a passion that connects with me – yet it’s who my work is compared to the most.
3. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Any with good strong elbow and shoulder joints! But seriously, I’d have to say Monet. I actually would find it fascinating to see how his changing vision influenced his work.
4 What is your favourite ‘ism’?
Mine doesn’t have an ism: the American color field artists movement.
5 What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
Every time someone says “You must love Turner”, which is rare. When people see that connection, I know they see beyond the simplicity and get what I’m trying to do.
6. And the dumbest?
Just as there are no dumb questions, I don’t think there’s a dumb reaction to any artwork either. Any person’s response to art is genuine, even if it’s uninformed.
7 Which artists would you most like to rip off, sorry, I mean appropriate as a critique oforiginality and authorship?
JMW Turner or Barnett Newman. Both of them did things that pushed the establishment and were brilliant and evocative. I’m still trying to push my materials and technique to express something new for a subject that is as old as human history.
8 Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Yes, to the extent that it is my living – so cost as in expense to me, or cost as in price to a buyer. These both need to at a point that keeps the studio sustainable.
9 What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
Light, space, sea. Not in a metaphysical sense but just a physical sense of the vastness of their dimensions.
10 Are you a political artist?
No, not in any way.
11 How do you start the process of making work?
All my work starts from the coast. I take my bike out to different parts of the English coast and cycle for several days, taking notes, sketches and doing small colour studies along the way. These come back to the studio where I start a process of more sketches and studies to decide which actual places can be abstracted and minimised to a simple painting that still captures the feeling of being there.
12 What next?
North Yorkshire coast from Scarborough up to Edinburgh, though probably in two trips. Continuing the new work focusing more on the light itself that came out of the Venice series exhibited this year.
13 If Moma and the Tate and the Pompidou wanted to acquire one of your works each, which would you want them to have?
MOMA I’d like to have a piece of my Lake Michigan work done from my hometown of Chicago
– possibly one of my current “Splash” paintings. I actually hope one day the Tate would have my work, but particularly my Dark series which was immensely influenced by JMW Turner and Barnett Newsman – so an influence from each London Tate. If I had to choose one piece it would be “He said the oceans are rising” – classical subject of storm at sea with the contemporary simplification of planes of colour.
14 Complete the following sentence “Blessed art the artists, for they shall……”
Carry on regardless.
15 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the curators, for they shall…”
Find the unique and interesting in the crowd.
16 Complete the following sentence “Blessed are the art critics, for they shall….”
Help the public find what the artists have made and the curators are trying to share.
17. What is your favourite cheese?
The kind you say to a camera, ideally while secretly pulling rabbit-ear fingers behind
someone’s head!
18. What’s next for you?
I’m looking forward to what might be my last year in London, with three big shows and fairs looming before the end of the year, and finishing off my geology degree in the next year. All before planning a big move out to the coast next summer.
You can see tina at Second Floor Studios and Arts, one of the largest communities of artists in the UK, Viewing days – Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th May 11am – 6pm
Bertram Whitford Interview
Binda Joy Interview
