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Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019 Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019
Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

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Freya Stockford

How did you get into painting?

I only really started painting in the last term of my degree where I built up a substantial body of work - and then I lost it all in the fire. It took me a moment to get back into painting. It was terribly sad for the students and most importantly, the building. The Mac was an iconic building - I feel incredibly privileged to have worked in it for 3 years and yet I still find it hard to talk about the loss of it. But the experience overall taught me not to hold onto material things which is a good lesson to learn!

How does sharing a creative space affect your work? Especially sharing a studio with such close proximity

I think in a strange way there's a sort of holding to account that takes place. If I'm not in my studio, I'm aware that someone else is and they can see how much (or little) I'm working on. There's also that feeling you get when someone nearby is working hard and you catch their creative energy - that can drive work forwards, sort of like energy by association.

How would you describe your art style, and how (if so) has this changed over the years?

I always wanted my work to be understood by anyone – whether that’s the use of colour or the objects in the paintings. When people ask me, I always panic and say minimal contemporary still life, but I don’t really know what people make of that.

Where do you pull your inspiration from and how do you get this across in your artwork?

I often talk about the objects in my work as a bit of a lexicon or a visual metaphor – it’s how still life used to be read; the placement of objects, the space in between, the objects themselves, how they interact with each other etc.. And the clue is in the name. There’s an event leading up to the still life and a world straight after it, so capturing a moment in time and the feeling that gives you is a challenge. The colours in my most recent painting are based on the colours of my 3 month old son’s nappy content – there’s a place for everything!

What drew you to painting mainly in acrylic? And do you ever use any other medium/want to use any other in the future?

I like to experiment and change quickly, and I like working fast. Oil was too slow for me and whilst I do sit within the still life genre, acrylic feels like a bit of a modern twist on the old masters.

Do you feel like you are affected differently sharing a studio with a different, perhaps cleaner artist than your previous, messier artist? 

Absolutely! I think my work gives this impression of a very neat studio with everything in its place – which just isn’t true – but going from sharing a studio with a vibrant painter to someone who works with graphite is a big change in terms of my surroundings. It’s much easier to see the colours in my work interacting without any external influence which has been wonderful and a pretty rare situation for a shared studio setup.

How many years have you been painting

I’ve been painting in this style since 2014 – so nearly 10 years.

How did you come to use gesso? And how is it used in your artwork? 

There will be someone who reads this and rolls their eyes, but I use an acrylic and gesso mix which makes the paint more chalky when it’s put down and it reminds me of domestic interior decorators paint, which is why I use it on my domestic scenes.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists who are just starting their creative journey?

Keep at it and enjoy it. Everything isn’t always an overnight success, it’s hard graft but ultimately, you’ll be doing what you love and there’s few lucky people who can truly say that about their work. And take opportunities when they feel right for you – and don’t take them when they don’t.

How do you stay motivated and inspired when facing creative challenges

I’m a big fan of taking time away to think as a valuable working day. I make all my mistakes when I haven’t let myself take a step back. But I find painting so all-consuming that even when I promise I’m not going to think about it, I’m thinking about it or seeing colours I’d like to work with. It doesn’t stop.

Do you feel it’s key to keep artwork to the studio and just work on the ipad at home?

That’s the way it’s worked for me so far – the studio feels like a ‘doing’ space. But I do use my ipad in the studio if something changes or I have a change of heart so I can redraft the work.

I’d also like to explore your creative process how has your ipad enabled you to change this?

So when I started I used to get all the colours mixed up and make a sort of maquette painting. The process of doing this manually with pencil and paper to the finished painting could be weeks and it would all need to be done at the studio so I had everything available to me. When I got the ipad I thought that I’d hate it and technology might ruin my work but it’s had the precisely opposite effect. Now I can draft a painting quickly, I can alter colours quickly – everything can change with the touch of buttons as I’m working on the paintings. Sometimes if I’ve drafted the colours too bright I can bring them down a bit in real life – colour is so important to get right so we freestyle that a bit and correct on the ipad as I go along. It’s been great for commissions too – I can send the customer the mock up and we can talk about it and live change anything they like. I also sell prints and I make the digital copies on there too. But having said all that, there’s nothing that can replace the painting or the process of creating the finished product.

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