Interview With Painter Elaine Speirs

Full of emotion, movement and vibrant color, Elaine's paintings are evocative renditions of form, figure and nature. We're awed by her seemingly effortless ability to build a visual history in her work that draws the viewer closer. This July, we welcome the UK artist to Hunter Moon Homestead to teach her workshop, Nature In Bloom, where retreat guests will learn her technique of "drawing with paint." 

We asked Elaine a few questions to get to know more about her as an artist and her artistic process. Watch the interview on YouTube.

How did you get started as an artist?

I always wanted to go to art school. I spent a lot of time in the art department, and I created a portfolio when I was about 20/21. I travelled in America for about a year, and then I came back and I started studying at Edinburgh College of Art.

What is your preferred medium?

Before I would have said acrylic, but now I'm very much an oil painter. I paint as if I'm using acrylic, but I actually use oil, and a lot of mediums to make the oil paint flow.

When creating a new work do you start from sketches or gather inspiration?

I always look at other artists for inspiration. And I read a lot about other artists. Especially, I read about Munch. He is probably my foundation of everything. I photocopy a lot of images that inspire me. I look for color and compositions. I use film as well. I'm always taking screenshots of unusual compositions within film. I cover my studio with them. They could be on my wall for a long time, and then something sparks a whole project. I just see something that helps me to push forward.

You use a lot of pinks and more traditionally "feminine" colors in your work. Can you tell us about your process of choosing a palette?

I'm drawn to the pinks and the feminine colours and the pastely colours because they are very difficult to use. And when I use them well, they really work. But it's not just pure pinks, there's a lot of layering going on. And again, as I said before, it sort of lures the viewer in because they're attracted to those colours.

But once they learn about the painting, there's something darker going on behind all those pinks and pastels. Because it's such a vibrant colour. But then, all my colours, I mix everything all the time. People say I'm a colourist, but I'm not really. I literally play with paint.

I don't normally use white and I might keep white away from you because white can kill a painting instantly.

What is the benefit from doing an in-person workshop vs. an online course?

I love being asked to do workshops because when you're there in person, you really begin to understand where the students are with their own abilities. They could be quite well advanced, they could be good beginners, they may just want to play, or they want to find out if they want to continue with their arts.

It's a great place to meet people. You will be nervous! It's exciting. And It's a great place to learn from each other as well. That's why I love doing workshops.

Can you share about your approach to teaching?

I want to take away the fear of starting. I want to think about this two day workshop as a visual diary. You're going to collect so many drawings and paintings—little paintings, bigger paintings, different surfaces, so that you can actually go back with a bundle of work, and feel as though that you have learned something. To feel as if  you've found your own expression through your drawing and your mark making and your painting.

I'll  guide you and help you through the workshop, to get back to the mark making that a child would do, and also the pleasure of it. Obviously we are going to bring in, sophisticated elements as well. So we have a balance of the playfulness, and the academic, and the structure of painting. I think when we get too tight, something's happening in our brain. We're not actually flowing freely enough with our work.

It can be frustrating. You don't know how to get back to that moment of play, or the academic placing of color and line. You might feel as though you're just dabbing around and nothing's really happening. That's when I'm there to help you out of that and push you forward.

And sometimes it can just take going for a walk for two minutes and then coming back into the studio and dusting yourself off, which I do a lot, to push forward. I rub away so much of my work. Usually the paintings I have, I think, that are eventually finished, have about 20 paintings underneath. I have to remind myself that when I rub away work, when I think it hasn't, it just hasn't worked at all, I'm left with a ghost, a little bit of a ghost, and a little bit of the ingredients to help me push forward. That is the beauty of creating a good thing.

Watch A Demo Of Elaine Painting On YouTube

Can you tell us a little bit about the painting technique you'll be teaching?

You almost treat paint, your paintbrush, like a pencil. So you're actually drawing with the paint. I start a painting, and, even though I want to just get straight into it, I inevitably, inevitably, always wipe over it. You need the ghost marks to enable you to develop your journey with the painting. If you watch my paintbrush  I'm actually drawing a continuous line, as if I'm working on paper. You don't want to get too tight, you don't want to get too worried.

I'm redrawing all the time. Redrawing is the key to painting and drawing. You're constantly layering. This takes time. It takes time to create the layers and the wiping away. And sometimes you'll wipe away and there'll be nothing left and you start again. But that's fine. 

I try not look at the canvas more, but I really try and just look at what I'm painting. Continuing to look at what you're painting helps enormously.

How does the theme of fragility play in your work?

The word fragility has always bounced around in my work. I think it's more to do with the fact that maybe I've created that as well. My work is very feminine, but it's not about the female being the weakest link. The female is always incredibly strong, but there's always a sort of femininity surrounding her, to lure you in, so that you find out [the strength there].

Which artists are currently influencing your work?

Marc Chagall, Claire Tabouret, and American artist, Hayley Barker. Two American artists I have on my list, and both ladies.

How does nature play in your work?

Well that happened about, 18 months ago. I was doing a lot of figurative work for a big project I was working on. I was just overwhelmed by, and quite exhausted with figurative painting, because it can be quite emotional. I needed to zoom in a little bit. I was looking at objects or anything to paint, and foliage started creeping into my work. That's how it started. I needed a break from the heaviness of the figure.

You've lived in Edinburgh for a long time. How has the history or architecture of the city influenced you?

I think it's more the fact that we're here for such a short time, and how old Edinburgh is. I live in a very old part of Edinburgh. Even our little flat, there's a lot of history. It's surrounding us. And, I don't know, it's like ghosts... There's echoes. And that's what I'm trying to paint as well. Little sort of, you know, subjects about, love and memories and anxieties. And I think that's what you feel in Edinburgh. It's quite a ghostly place.

How do you know when a piece is finished?

That's probably the hardest question ever. Actually, I've got a quote:

"If a painting doesn't change as you get closer, it is not a good painting. A painting is something you have to get up close to, to see and to get into it."

That's a quote by Marlene Dumas, and I do work with that a lot. If you keep looking at a painting, you think, oh, I don't feel it, or it's not quite right... let's completely wipe over it. That's what I do. I wipe away a lot. And then, when it has that tiny bit of emotion hanging in there, and you're drawn to it, that's when it's done.

It doesn't matter if you're painting a flower, a tree, a portrait. It's a feeling.

Any advice for new painters who might be intimidated by the process?

Everybody feels intimidated by it. Even in art school. You just have to learn. Read a lot about artists, practice, continue drawing all the time, keep sketchbooks. Life drawing is important, very very important but don't start off with that because it will scare you even more! Listen to your tutors, and have fun.

Are you currently exhibiting your work?

Yes, I've got some work that's going to be exhibiting very soon at a very lovely gallery called the Stratford Gallery, down in the Cotswolds.

Any new projects on the horizon?

There's a project that could be happening. I'll be going off to the Isle of Mull, where my mum has family on her dad's side. I'm going to be looking at old, old images and listening to stories of my family's past, of all the ladies, and how they lived on the island, and see what happens, and create a body of work.

And of course I'll be teaching at Hunter Moon Homestead this summer and hope that you'll all join me.

 

Elaine Speirs was born in Johannesburg 1967 and moved to Scotland as a child. Her childhood experiences in and between these two places spurred an interest in the themes of fragility, contradiction and reinvention that recur throughout her work.

Speirs explores the stark contrast she observes between the rich contours of female personhood and the depersonalised portraits of women that appear in the public sphere. Referencing a variety of imagery - ranging from nineteenth century literature to contemporary photography and film - the work reclaims the fleeting moments of humanity Speirs glimpse in these images, establishing a tentative connection between the distant and the intimate, between the universal and the personal.

Speirs attended Edinburgh College of Art between 1989 and 1993, and completed her MA at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1995. She lives and works in Edinburgh with her three daughters. A regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Scotland, Mall Galleries in London and represented by the Andgallery in Edinburgh. Her awards include, Caron Keating Memorial Award, John Purcell Drawing Award. She was shortlisted for the National Open Art Competition, The Threadneedle Prize, W Gordon Smith Award and selected for the BP Portrait Award. In 2021 she was elected as Professional Member for Visual Arts Scotland. Her works are included in private collections worldwide.