Bea Campbell

For me, painting is about composing. I begin with colour, lines and patterns in order to play with the space and give me a base to start building forms. Working wet into wet, I paint from pictures drawn from ideas, daydreams and imagery from everyday life in the digital age. The work I am creating are like small escapes, the bold colours and gestural style making them free and adventurous. Instagram: @bea_campbell

There is a lot of energy to your painting, where does this stem from?

For me, once I’m in front of the blank canvas, there’s a sense of urgency to get my work from brain to brush. I’ve always worked at speed, perhaps because of impatience but it’s actually what creates most of the excitement and energy, the frantic need to keep going. I like seeing the brush strokes and being able to determine the decisions the artist has made when looking at their work, which is true of my own; being able to look back and feel the energy of that momentary decision.

What would you like people to take away from your work?

The idea that they could have looked for longer, I want my art to be something that holds your attention and you’re not entirely sure why you can’t stop looking. Maybe it’s the colour relationships or gestural brush strokes, but something that is perplexingly holding you there.

If you could pair any piece of music or genre with your work what would it be?

That’s a tough one as I have an incredibly eclectic taste in music but I think I would have to say Disco. You can’t really ignore Disco; it’s full of energy and expression. In the way that disco music inadvertently evokes a foot tap or a hip shake response when you hear it, I’d like my art to do the same.

If you could show your work anywhere, where would it be?

5Any gallery with walls big enough. Where I’d most love my work to be is in someone’s study or music room or really anywhere that another human will see it and take inspiration for their own work.

Can you list a couple other creatives/friends/people you look to for inspiration?

4. Always a difficult one to pinpoint to a select few as every day, there are new inspirations from a wide range of places. For example, I love the playfulness of McIndoe Design’s prints, the patterns and colours of iconic Liberty prints. Working as a scenic painter was incredibly inspiring, not just learning a variety of specialized painting techniques but there are elements from set design that are exciting to inject into a piece of work. I also work as an assistant for artist, Hermione Carline and whose process and studio practice have taught me so much about my own.