Four years on from finishing your Masters, do you feel more confident producing a body of work for this exhibition? Less self doubt? Or just the normal amount of artist self doubt?
I think weirdly you always start a new painting again as a beginner. It’s like, "hang on a minute, how do I do this again?" It’s like a complete re-cap of every painting you’ve ever made, and trying to learn from it. It’s weird because you’d think that you’d get more confident. And in a way you do. I guess you know you’re capable of it because you’ve done it enough times.
But…there’s always that fear of a blank canvas and starting out again and getting it to a point of "well actually I like that now". That doesn’t happen often with me. I’m not someone who tends to like their own paintings. I’m able to see that it’s what I had in mind, or close to it. …But I don’t love them.
There’s one or two that I’m like "I actually like that one!" And you kinda work from there. But yeah, a painting is always something that is quite daunting.
So that’s a ‘no, it wasn’t easier?
No. I think it’ll always be the case. I don’t know why. I can paint. I’m a painter. I do it all the time. I do it every day. But yeah…you still don’t know. You feel like a beginner all the time. You’ve no idea what you’re doing. And I hear that from other artists as well...
How difficult do you find it to abandon a painting?
I abandon paintings quite often to be honest with you. I’ve got numerous paintings lying around here that you’ll not see. If they’re not working and you’ve spent a long time on it, it can just become a source of depression. You’re coming in every day and you’re like, "get that thing outta here, it’s not working".
But that is the battle of painting. It’s like a problem solving exercise. It’s so difficult and I struggle with that. Every painter will have a painting that they’ll have had a fight with and it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes it’s better that you move on.
Tell us about the painting "Guiding Light". The light is key. What is the significance of that?
I’m always drawn to interesting lighting in paintings. And one that really inspired the use of lanterns in this body of work was John Singer Sargent’s painting “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose”. It’s of these kids in a garden. I was lucky enough to see it in London at the Tate (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sargent-carnation-lily-lily-rose-n01615). I had been looking at it before that, so seeing it in person was next level obviously!
I was there for twenty minutes staring at it. It’s just the use of light and how it bounces off the figures. It’s just something as simple as that that made me want to try it in my work. How can I use that in my work as a passage for colour and really introduce that into the figures as well?
When the dancers were in the studio did you have that painting in mind? Did you get them to hold light?
Yeah I did. The actual photo shoot itself the lanterns were in their hands and we would use that. We would dot them around the place and stuff. It’s funny because I’d say there’s not a narrative there, but in a way I would suggest things by giving them props. The lanterns were really just a thing for them to play around with. And it was just the consequence of having a light in your hand and how does that affect the rest of the body, and the fabric, and the face, and all that sort of stuff. And then using that as a way to influence the paintings and bring colour into them and various things.
"The Dance Studio" solo exhibition of paintings by Calum Stevenson runs from 31st August to 28th September 2024 at Gallery Heinzel, Great Western Road, Aberdeen.
