"I
spend as much time as I can in the studio on a regular basis. It can
vary from week to week, but I'm usually in the studio at least four
days a week plus one day a week spent at home doing admin. It really
depends on what projects I am working on. But I do try to be
structured, to keep in touch with what I'm doing there. I think it's
important to have a framework. I've always been a studio-based artist
so it's a special place for me and my work and it's where I really
feel at home.
I've
been a practising artist for more than thirty years, working on
paper as well as on canvas, in series that are often open-ended. I've
been through many phases with my work in that time, always abstract.
When I first started painting I was exploring colour, gesture and
composition; then geometry; then it was all about process. Right now
I'm interested in mark-making and scale.
One
of my pieces, Eclipse, has recently been acquired for the
Priseman-Seabrook Collection. That painting encapsulates a particular
moment in time. When I have an idea for a series of work, I push that
idea as far as I can. Then there comes a time to move on and, yes,
you could see that piece as a turning point – moving on to add a
little more control to the process and towards the 'drip' paintings
that followed.
I'm
an abstract painter; my paintings are a combination of precision and
chance. I love working with paint, making it do different things and
changing my goals and ambitions for the paintings from time to time
just to keep it interesting. One of my all-time favourite artists is
Gerhard Richter, whose paintings I first saw in Berlin in 1991 and
have seen many times since. He is always inspiring. Lots of
contemporary painters interest me and I watch to see what they're
doing and how they develop.
There
are a number of interesting painters working at the moment. Painting
has had a real renaissance in recent years, particularly abstract
painting, and it is once again very current. It's always exciting
when that happens and painting becomes part of the discourse about
contemporary art rather than being relegated to the margins. Carla
Busuttil, for example, who I met in 2008 at her degree show at the
Royal Academy Schools, is an interesting painter. Also Jacqueline
Humphries whose work has changed a lot since I first saw it in New
York when her paintings were all red drips.
There
are far more galleries in the US than in the UK, but then again there
are many more artists there too. Finding a gallery to suit your work
is just as difficult, wherever you're based
.
Over
the next few months my paintings can be seen in group shows at
Huddersfield Art Gallery, Ipswich Art Gallery, St Marylebone Crypt in
London and Swindon Art Gallery.”
Culture24. From a studio interview with Julie Umerle by Lesley Guy. 10 December 2014
