Artist Interview - Visual artist Emily Patrick

1 ::: Why are you an artist Emily?

There was never any question of doing anything else. I sold paintings even as a schoolgirl. It is my fascination, satisfaction and chief ability.

+2 ::: Could you tell me some more about your art?

I don’t talk about my art except in a very practical way. Maybe the history of a particular composition or a technical problem. I think about it all the time but each painting is its own problem or opportunity.

+3 ::: What is it that inspires you to paint a particular subject?

The subject has shown me a beautiful, interesting or magical property which I want to show to other people.

+4 ::: What artists have influenced you and why?

Beginning with early Flemish paintings (eg Hans Memlinc*), then Dutch still lives (eg Bruegel*), the early Italian (eg Mantegna*). More recent painters include Fantin-Latour*. I appreciate principally qualities of abstract composition, sense of line, tender or delicate subtlety and bravery.

+5 ::: What do you do for fun (besides art)?

I’m not unusual in what I take pleasure from but I’m into fun for its own sake.

+6 ::: What inspires you to paint and how do you keep motivated when things get tough in the studio?

Just keep looking, looking and looking again.

+7 ::: How have you handled the business side of being an artist?

My parents were self-employed and often overdrawn and so I took the business side of it quite seriously. A professional portrait painter once advised me “If you want to be a portrait painter, first of all buy a filing cabinet.”
Portraits supported me while I became established.

+8 ::: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope that the critics will be more keener on my work and that I will be more confident.

+9 ::: What is it about still lifes that keeps you painting them, and what are you working on at the moment?

Still lives can contain all the qualities that I search for (see 4) without the distractions of a larger and more complex subject. I have just finished putting a little portrait into a rather cold still life. The portrait has brought in life and warmth.

+10 ::: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

First make sure that you know what really good painting is by going to the best galleries.
If you want to be professional you must never rest until the picture is one hundred percent right.
Give yourself a time limit, say two years. If no one who is knowledgeable wants to buy or hang your work, don’t go on banging your head on the wall. But while you try, give it every drop of sweat that you have in you.