Artist in Focus: Jill Hammond

I was an art teacher in a secondary school for 11 to 18 year olds. I didn’t have time to do any painting, just working with the students.  It wasn’t until 5 years ago I started to take painting more seriously.

When I started painting again it was quite representational.  I’ve never been happy with completely representational where it looks like a photograph.  I prefer it to have more character, have more loose technique.  I moved away from that.  I started with still life and moved away from using paint brushes.  

I can be inspired, influenced by other artists. If I go to exhibitions and see other artists’ works I won’t copy their work but I’ll see something in it I quite like and I’ll go home to try that out.

My mother was always drawing.  She was born in 1926.  When she left school, which would have been 15 years old maybe, she went to an art school which was quite unusual at that time.  She became a window dresser. When she got married, she stopped.  I don’t think there were many opportunities in those days.  She did have this artistic streak in her that passed down to us.  I have her influence.  My brother is also a very good artist. 

I’m so happy now to be painting in a much freer style.  I went to an exhibition where there was someone painting fairly abstract work.  You could see a hint of what things were, but it was abstract and very large.  This made me think, I’m working bigger but also with more materials, tissue paper, and inks and mixed media.  I’m leaning towards abstraction without it being completely abstract.  I enjoy painting so much. I enjoy experimenting with painting.    

I never seem to have trouble wondering what to paint.  If I see something: a poster, postcard, or a view, I’ll take it and I’ll put in a folder or keep the photograph.  I always seem to have things lined up to try next, I must try that next...  At the moment, I’m working with tissue paper, mixed materials.  I start off by doing some rough outlines of the image, whatever it is I want to do, with inks and a roller.  I’ll block in some areas of colour on the canvas or on the paper just quite loosely.   I put a few lines in and structures, then start to block out bigger areas.  I always like some of the ink to show through a bit, and it gets smaller and smaller. So I kind of work from the background out to the details towards the end.  At the end I’m only putting a line, a reflection, a little bit of detail. I work in ink, gouache, acrylic, oil, anything that I feel is appropriate for the work.

I don’t use brushes. I use credit cards, bits of wood, rollers, stencils, forks, cotton bobbins, anything.  I hardly ever use brushes. About three years ago I moved to palette knives. It’s so much freer to paint with palette knives. It was a big step for me. Now, I use anything at all.

My best work comes when I’m not worrying about it.  Don’t worry that everything has to be perfect.  It works best when you’re working in a free way.  Just go for it.  You can either start again.  If you’re working in acrylic, you can paint over it, cover that bit up and go over it.  If it’s oil, you can cover it up. If you get really tight, you don’t do your best work.  Happy accidents seem to come when you’re working in a free way.  Another tip: don’t muddy the colours.  If you keep working over and over on the same piece, the colours lose the light, become muddied and you can’t get it back again.  Acrylic and oil can be salvaged sometimes.  Try to put the colour on and be happy where the colour is at the first go.  

Everyone has a story to tell.   When you take the time to share your stories, you leave a lasting imprint of yourself with other people.  Would you want your story to be featured in my blog?  Please e-mail me at vivaandrada@gmail.com  Thanks. -Viva