Could you tell us a bit about yourself art and your background? Where did you study?
I grew up in Teesside in the northeast of England and studied my Foundation at The Northern School of Art. I then moved to Manchester in 2015 to study BA Fine Art at Manchester School of Art (Manchester Metropolitan University). This is where I discovered that I wanted to be an artist. After I graduated, I stayed in Manchester for a couple of years and continued to develop my practice – I had a studio at Paradise Works, which is a fantastic studio group in Salford. In 2021, I decided to leave the North and began studying my Masters in Painting at the Royal College of Art (after receiving the Basil H. Alkazzi scholarship award) – I’m now in my second year.
In your paintings, you use a wide variety of references from general culture and art history. How do you select the starting points for your work?
My paintings explore the collective experience of women and my relationship with other people/ myself – therefore I get ideas all the time by just existing. Ideas for paintings come when I’m least expecting them, normally when I’m relaxed. I keep a notebook with me and sketch out ideas as they come. If I’ve forgotten my notebook, I draw them in the notes on my phone. These preliminary drawings are basic and are often just stick figures with some writing next to them to tell me what the drawing is actually meant to be. It’s later when I begin to build on the narrative and the concept of the painting. This is when I add references to art history, and culture, and use various motifs and symbols to translate the intended story.
Can you tell us a bit about your process and how your paintings evolve and take shape?
Once I have an idea for a painting, I create a digital collage in photoshop using primary and secondary photographs. The painting begins to change a lot at this point. I try not to be too precious about my digital collages, so I continue to sketch into them and write on top of them – sometimes writing the name of the motif, for example ‘pigeon’, instead of spending time drawing a pigeon. Once I am happy with a collage, I scale it up onto canvas/linen/panel. The composition always looks very different when it’s scaled up and off my computer screen. So, I start to add, remove, and rearrange the composition and begin to think about colour and texture. This is my favourite part of the process as the paintings start to feel alive.
The title to your latest show; “At Least Buy Me Dinner First” suggests an ironic humour. How has humour and comedy influenced your approach to painting and visual arts?
I love being silly and laughing, so it was inevitable that a bit of humour would find its way into my paintings. A lot of my paintings deal with quite difficult themes and often explore the darker sides of life and relationships. The works are deeply personal and so, consequently, I often feel quite vulnerable and exposed during the making. Adding humour or playful motifs (like the smoking seagull, creepy sea-creature legs, and worms on the BBQ) lightens the process for me. I need that silliness.
I wrote my dissertation about Brecht, and how contemporary painting could adopt Brechtian strategy to make it a more useful tool for social change/comment. Brecht used comedy within his plays as he recognised it as a tool for political comment. He used comedy to make the familiar strange and I recognised that some of my favourite artists (e.g. Dana Schutz and Nicole Eisenman) do just that. Their humour and playful surrealness give the work an immediate access point. I like to play with that access point – I want my paintings to have two tempos. Firstly, the immediate tempo (achieved through humour or vivid colour) – that’s what draws you in. Secondly, the quiet tempo that creeps up on you (achieved through ambivalence, symbolism, unusual narratives and distorted compositions) – this is what makes the audience re-look at the painting and discover something new. Like Brecht, I want this duality to stimulate conscious critical observation.
This same duality led me to use this title. As you say, it’s ironic and humorous but also really sad. You know exactly who is saying it, how she’s said it, and who she’s said it to. It’s vulnerable, it speaks about power imbalances and unfair exchange, but it’s also light.
A number of your paintings often depict personal experiences, observations and memories based on your own life experiences. Have you found this to be a reflective and cathartic process? And has this meant that you have ever reappraised your thoughts of your experiences?
The paintings respond to the collective experiences of women and are influenced by my own experiences and stories shared with me by others. They don’t represent direct situations, for example ‘will you still love me when I’m not young and beautiful?’ doesn’t represent me foraging in the landscape and swimming with friends, but instead it speaks about love and obsession, ineffable femininity, and societal pressures.
My process is certainly reflective and cathartic, and the experience of painting always helps me process things.
There is a tension in the work which has been set up by the picture’s bright colours, energetic brush strokes and complex subject matter. Is this an experience you would like a view to be aware of?
Like humour, I also use colour to achieve the immediate tempo I referred to. Lubaina Himid said in a Talk Art interview that she likes to use colour to draw the viewer in. Once she has them hooked and looking at the paintings, she can reveal the darker political messages of the piece. I loved the way she articulated this, as though she was manipulating the viewer. Like Lubaina, I’m using colour like a tool. I don’t care if my viewer is aware of where the tension is coming from, I just care that the tension exists.
Your work includes painting, sculpture and ceramic. How do you find the relationship between working in both mediums? Are there any connections in the process and approach?
I’ve always painted – but I only became interested in ceramics when I was studying at Manchester School of Art after being inspired by the work of Lindsey Mendick. Funnily enough, Lindsey is Guy’s partner – the brilliant artist who also has a solo exhibition opening at Brooke Benington on the same evening as mine. In 2020, after securing a DYCP arts council grant, I was mentored by Lindsey. It was during this time that I realised it wasn’t the material that interested me most about Lindsey’s work, but it was her ability to communicate. She is brutally honest, confessional and dramatic. Lindsey supported me during a very formative time. It was during this period that I learnt how I could explore personal experiences, and raise social and political injustices through my work, within a boundary I was comfortable with.
For the last two years I’ve been consumed by painting (with only the occasional dip into ceramics when using it to explore paint). I love ceramic because of its texture, so recently, I’ve been playing with paint more and exploring how I can get more sculptural texture into my paintings. It’s been a really fun process and I’ll forever be a massive paint geek.
What new projects have you got in the pipeline?
My focus for the new year is to work towards my Degree Show (June 2023) and complete my Masters in Painting. The facilities and technicians at the Royal College of Art are fantastic, so I want to make sure I’ve dabbled in every workshop before I leave. I’ve really enjoyed painting on wooden panel recently, and many of the works in ‘At Least Buy Me Dinner First’, are on circular wooden panels. I’m planning on developing my painting on wood and exploring surface a lot more in the coming weeks. I’m also in the early stages of working towards a couple of shows, which I’ll announce when I can on my Instagram – @kt_tomlinson.
Katie is presenting a new exhibition of work at Brooke Benington.
‘At Least Buy Me Dinner First’ will run from the 24th of November 2022 to the 14th of January 2023
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