Behind the Scenes with Stacey McCall
In your artist statement for your solo exhibition As Essential as Housework, you mention ‘deliberately exposing the hand of the maker, the layers of thought, errors, corrections, my process made transparent to the viewer.’ What does this look like when we view your artworks?
I often start a painting using a drawing oil stick, I like the way it mimics the lines of the pencil from my sketchbook. I will put layers of translucent paint over these lines but hope that sometimes they are still visible, almost like a skeleton, I guess. Sometimes if I don’t feel a composition is quite working, I might wipe away something but am happy for that object to also be slightly still there, a shadow of the thing that I’ve removed but it adds another layer to the painting.
How does the environment around you influence what you choose to paint or draw? How do you choose specific objects?
I have so many things in my studio and when I am working on an exhibition - my tiny space gets very cluttered. I don’t set up a still life as much as I used to but rather, I just start painting the objects that are clustered together, moving them around slightly but keeping it all quite natural. I’m always thinking of my childhood home or thinking about a place I would like to create, somewhere calm, earthy, lots of handmade things, a muted palette, drawn from memories too, making a painting I could imagine hanging on the wall of an Alister Knox House.
Could you describe your artistic process? How important are your sketchbooks in developing ideas?
My sketchbooks are such an important part of my art practice. I usually start a painting by first doing a drawing, sometimes just pencil but most often I will use acrylic paint or gouache. I reference this drawing even more than the objects in front of me, trying to capture the looseness of these initial studies in my oil paintings. If I get a but stuck halfway through, in those tricky middle layers of a painting, my drawings are such a helpful reminder of what I am trying to achieve.
If you could work alongside any artist in their studio (dead or alive), to talk about ideas and inspiration, who would you choose and why?
Oh, that’s such a hard question, I think my work is influenced by so many artists. I love Morandi and Matisse, but I am particularly drawn to the work of the British Modernists such as Ben Nicholson, Willian Scott and Mary Fedden. I particularly love the work of Ben Nicholson’s daughter Kate Nicholson and feel like I have been very inspired by her work. However, if I was to spend a day in someone’s studio, I think it would be with the Scottish painter Sir William Gillies. We would go out into the Scottish countryside where I’d watch him do a beautiful water colour then back to the studio to paint a still life together. He might then bake a fruit pie from produce from his garden as he was known to do. From all I’ve read about him, he was a gently man, appreciative of a simple life after the trauma of war, and a very inspiring teacher at the Edinburgh school, and of course, Scottish like my own Dad.
What are your favourite sources of inspiration? Where do you find your artistic community and new ideas?
I have a substantial collection of art books and would like to say I spend more time looking at those than scrolling Instagram, but both are sources of inspiration. Another rabbit hole I love to go down is YouTube, there are some wonderful channels that feature artists in their studios, The Louisiana Channel is worth checking out. I have an amazing art community, so many lovely friends, I think we are all so supportive of each other. From the artists I have met at Boom, to people I have met through Instagram and then my art group in Melbourne, I am so grateful for this community.
How does the process of painting a landscape feel different from painting a still life?
I love going out with my sketchbook, there is such a freedom to being out in the landscape, such a challenge to not only find my own visual language but also keep my still life and landscape paintings in the same voice. The continuum I suppose is the referencing of my sketchbook, and I love the contrast between the outdoors and then the quiet private space of my tiny studio.
Your landscape ideas are captured plein air, what references do you use to continue working on them in the studio?
I take a sketchbook out with me and do studies in watercolour or gouache, and then I also take my board and maybe just titanium white, raw umber and burnt sienna, and I will do the underpainting en plein air, then finish the work back in the studio using my sketches as reference.
Can you tell us about the ongoing project you are doing with fellow artist Elizabeth Barnett?
The Bridge Letters has been one of the most unexpected and lovely things to come from my practice but also from my friendship with Lizzie. We connected through Amber Creswell Bell’s 'Still Life' book as we were both included, and then our friendship grew from our love of knitting, our journeys as mothers trying to be artists, and the day to day balancing of life and our art. We started messaging each other daily, just about this and that, a lot about knitting but also just what was happening in our days. I think we both wanted to try and connect to our respective audiences in a more personal way and had both written blogs in the past, so came up with the idea of letters to each other. We called it The Bridge letters because they connect us but also, we often talk about that one painting in a body of work that feels like the bridge to the next. It’s funny because when I’m writing to Lizzie, I am only thinking that I’m talking to her but then someone will message or say to me how much they are enjoying the letters and how relatable our experiences are and that just makes me so happy. I think when someone tells me my paintings make them feel calm, I take that as such a compliment, so when someone says they really connect to our letters, I really feel like we are not alone, working in our studios, questioning ourselves, being so grateful that we do what we do but also being honest about how challenging it can be.
