Artist Q&A: Michelle Griffiths RE

Michelle Griffiths RE

HCA: How did you get into art

Michelle: Since primary school, I remember art being my favourite subject, one that I would endlessly practise in my own time. I was not generally very conscientious about homework, but art was different. I didn’t see it as work. Sadly, neither did my secondary school, and there was never any hint that it was a subject that could be continued at a higher level of education. Despite that I would spend my weekends visiting London galleries. My curiosity was perhaps what we now call research in academic circles. I remember one occasion, a lightbulb moment, most distinctly. I was probably around 13 years old and had been experimenting at home with ways of rendering a tree in full leaf in my basic poster paints on paper. I looked at photos of trees as well as trees themselves, but eventually resolved to take a trip to the national Gallery on the next Saturday. Here, by carefully studying a number of Constable’s paintings and trying to analyse his technique, I realised that the process of painting was about equivalence: that it was possible to represent an object in paint convincingly by using ‘shorthand’ and economy of means. A few brush strokes of different greens in a constable landscape could from a slight distance from the canvas be read as a substantial and convincing tree in texture and form. So, paint was its own language and I had to learn to use it. The start of a wonderful journey.

HCA: How do you start each piece? Do you generally have an idea about the image you’re going to create before you begin?

Michelle: Often a new piece of work picks up on ideas explored in a previous piece. As I work, I develop ideas through the process of making. In order to avoid overloading or over-complicating a piece it is essential, as new ideas emerge, that many of these ideas are held over for a separate but connected piece of work. That is why I, like most artists, work on numerous paintings, prints and drawings concurrently. Series seem a natural solution. I do use sketch book thumbnails to rough out ideas, but most pieces change massively in the making.

HCA: What materials do you use and why?

Michelle: As a printmaker, I have used a wide range of print processes over the years, but have been using almost exclusively screen printing for the last couple of decades. It’s a strong painterly medium which allows very clear and strong use of colour. I paint in oils on canvas. I like the fact that oil paint takes some time to dry, so it remains workable and changeable for hours and sometimes days. 

HCA: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Michelle: People and behaviour. My work is always about relationships. Relationships between individuals or between individuals and society. Structures of societal organisation fascinate me and I love that those structures have to try to deal with both the civilised and the animal instincts of the individuals who make it up.

HCA: What’s your studio like?

Michelle: Fortunately, in these days of lock down, it is an outbuilding a few paces from the back door of my house. I can work on in isolation without much change to my daily routines. It is too small of course.

HCA: Are there any other artists (past or present) that inspire you?

Michelle: Many. Often I am energized and motivated by looking at art that looks nothing like my own. It could be attitude, working methods or ways of thinking that inspire and encourage.

HCA: What is it you are trying to achieve in your pieces?

Michelle: Sometimes I wish I knew. Each piece is an effort to resolve some questions or conceptual problems. If this results in an outcome that surprises and excites me, I usually feel it has achieved something. 

HCA: Are there any other art forms that you would like to try such as sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, painting etc? 

Michelle: I enjoy the way ideas cross media boundaries and currently I am usually working between, drawing, painting and printmaking. Sometimes the very materials or process of a particular medium can help to open up new ways of thinking about a particular visual proposition.

HCA: What are you working on currently?

Michelle: Two new editions of screen prints, some associated monoprints and a number of oil paintings of various sizes.