Congratulations to Constance Regardsoe for earning her place as a Winner in the Boynes Monthly Art Award March Edition!

Who are you?

My name is Constance Regardsoe, I was born in Preston, and I always wanted to be an artist. My father was a painter and decorator, and some of my earliest memories are of him teaching me to draw in pencil. As I got older, Fine Art didn't seem like something that could be a viable career - I didn't know any artists or anyone who had managed to make a living that way. I was very academic when I was younger, so I pursued an English degree, and got an administration job in London. It was then that I realised art was something I really wanted to take seriously. So, I lived carefully, worked full-time for a few years, and got some savings behind me so I could move to part time work, and spend a year and a half on a part time salary, studying art part-time. This was a challenging period, and I supplemented my income with portrait commissions.

At the end of that time, I had started making the 'bodies in water' paintings that make up my practice, and had developed my skills in observation and oil paint to a level I was confident with. I entered work into open exhibitions during the lockdown summer of 2020, and amazingly, I was selected for all six of my entries, and I even won the Bath Society of Art Award and Young artist prize. Shortly after, I had my first sale of an original, and I decided I'd take a plunge and try to make a career in art full time, along with some teaching work. It wasn't a smooth journey but in year 1 I continued to develop my skills as a painter, gained experience of both selling directly to clients and of working with galleries, and learnt to manage my time as both an artist and a 'small business'. In my second year full time, I built on this experience. I took part in my first art show at The Other Art Fair in London, and did my first international residency program in Canada. I continued developing painting, and most recently took part in my first artist led show, just last week, at Curious Kudu in Peckham, along with a brilliant painter named Lee Putman, in a show called 'Moves Like Water', which gave me some really interesting experience in curation and delivering an artistic project.

What inspired you to utilize painting as a medium?

I had always been attached to drawing, and drawing was definitely the way I finessed my skills with observation. Oil paint is something else though. It's incredibly difficult, and it allows for a greater range of expression in terms of mark making - no two painters will paint in the same way. The extended drying time particularly suits me I think, as it allows for mistakes to be made and corrected and then for incredibly fine details to be captured and developed. More recently, I am trying to learn to also make broader more gestural marks alongside the intricate details that dominated my practice initially.

How would you describe your work?

I produce large scale oil paintings of water and bodies in water in a representational style. Photography plays a big part in my work, I use a photo as reference, and I either take the shots myself, or model for them when a model isn't available. Getting a sense of place and the memory of the time feels important to me. Viewers often describe my work as photorealistic, and it has elements of that, but I feel I'm drawn to initial images that don't seem entirely real in some way. I am also very interested in the fleetingness of time in my work. Water is constantly moving, and the intense distortions it creates, are unique to a single fleeting moment of capture. 

Can you discuss the inspiration and thought process behind your winning work?

The title of the painting is Emergence, and it is 90x90cm, oil on canvas. It's part of a series of seven paintings, all of which had reference photography taken in Colombia in March 2020, just before lockdown, and were modelled for by a close friend named Alice who is an oncology nurse. She had been very good to me through some difficult times, and my respect for the intense dedication and empathy that her profession demanded, I think, filtered into the final outcome of the painting. That body of work is the first that made me think of myself as a professional artist in a way. It was interesting, because immediately after the very freeing experience of travelling in Colombia, I came back to a lockdown, three months of which I spent in a very calm but quite isolated environment. I was possibly trying to capture some of the feeling of freedom and connection was missing over the ensuing year. I think that I was also, particularly with Emergence, which was started later into the lockdown year, starting to get a sense of anticipation and impending change, that life would soon be returning to normal, or something different, and of what I could do with art when it did. 

Can you walk us through the technical steps of creating your winning work?

Most of my works start with a very loose pencil drawing, done free hand without gridlines. I then block in thin layers of watered down colour to break up the white of the canvas. Then I got straight into the detail, working on sections at a time, and often revisiting and adjusting areas. I had to be careful to ensure the vibrancy of the water, and to balance the shadows and heat on the skin, and how it contrasted with its surrounding environment. The sections with the diaphanous flow of the hair, and the peeling water on the shoulder were particularly difficult but at the same time rewarding.

What do you hope to communicate to an audience with your work?

I wanted the viewer to get a sense of immediacy, the model is propelling herself out of the water, and the harsh crop of the head in the corner is intended to indicate that they are about to leave the frame. I was trying to create this sense of urgency about time passing, and the positives and negatives of that. I was interested in the idea of changing states (the model has been underwater and is in the motion of pushing up for air) both the celebration but also the difficulty and challenge that comes with that.

Have you experimented with other mediums?

I began with lots of drawing, first in pencil, then for years all my tube journeys were consumed by ink and biro sketches. I like charcoal, particularly on toned backgrounds with chalk. I have used watercolour and enjoy it, even though I'm not very good, and practiced with acrylics before progressing to oil painting (not how everyone works, but for me acrylic felt like a step before oil). I've only used egg tempera once, and I loved it, but it would be a big investment to set up at home, so perhaps something I'll revisit much further down the line. For now I'll be sticking with oil. My co artist in the Moves Like Water show does some incredibly interesting things with mixed media along with oil paint, and it's making me contemplate being more experimental, but I think ultimately I'm a traditionalist. Down the line, I'd be interested in thinking about VR and some of the exciting tech developments happening though, as I think this can be used to create really immersive experiences, and allow you to really play with scale. 

Can you talk about your biggest learning experience during the process of creating your work?

I was introduced to the concept of 'keying' at art school, as a way of looking for the overarching patterns of light and shadow as an initial focus, before getting caught up in minute detail, as is probably natural for me. It was a lesson that took me some time to learn, and even though I learnt it in a oil painting class, I don't think I fully understood it until I was working on a small, quick, pencil portrait of my partner Sam a year later. In a work like 'Emergence', where capturing the extreme contrast of light and shadow, but then also picking up on the nuances of rebounded light, and variance of temperature was important, it was an invaluable lesson, and something I hope to continue improving upon. 

Can you discuss your biggest success since starting your artistic journey?

I spent a month in Newfoundland in Canada doing the Pouch Cove Artist residency program last summer. It normally takes me around 70-120 hours to complete a full size painting. During the month, I made five. I worked incredibly long days out there, but I also made amendments to my practice that made me more efficient. I am proud of those developments, and my physical outputs (the paintings) from that month. I was also able to build relationships with the other artists completing the residency, and I took time to get myself in a good headspace, and look after myself out there, which is something I can sometimes neglect.

Can you tell something you wish you had known before or when you began your career that would have really helped?

Art is all about people and emotions. When people buy your work, people are making an emotional connection to it. Sometimes they are very willing to share that connection with you. You also need to be aware of how you present yourself. It took me some time to appreciate this. People are also incredibly important. Making art can be incredibly isolating, and you have to find ways to bring people along with you. Sometimes things will seem almost insurmountably challenging, and you have to put things in place to look after yourself, whether that's building a support network, having savings behind you to mitigate the inconsistency of an artist's salary, or having other outlets for yourself. 

What projects are you working on currently?

Eight of my pieces are currently on show at the Curious Kudu gallery in South London, and will be on display until the 29th April, as part of the Moves Like Water show along with artist Lee Putman. The show was an amazing opportunity, and I am very grateful to the Kudu team for giving us so much freedom to deliver the show. Putting the works together was initially my idea, and I felt like it allowed for some really interesting parallels and clashes about how artists depict movement using a 2D medium (I paint water and figures in water, Lee paints, in this show, contemporary street dance). I feel like I've learnt a lot from doing the show, and I'm really proud of the works on display.

Next, I have some commission work lined up, but then I'll be working on some photography pieces I was able to capture earlier in the year, and I am really excited about what I am going to make from them.

What is your dream project or piece you hope to accomplish?

Wow. I have some things in mind for way down the line, but some good advice I heard once is to focus on short to medium goals. I am going to be applying to put a piece of work into Figurativas, which is the competition to get work acquired by MEAM in Barcelona. It's my favourite gallery, and I love the work in the collection, the evident appreciation of figurative painting and the celebration of the body, and the ethos of championing living working artists. I'm not sure if I'm quite at the level yet but it's something I'm aspiring to. 

As a winner, do you have any advice for artists who want to submit to awards, competitions, residencies, etc.?

Be thick skinned and try not to take rejection personally. Research the award/competition/residency and try to assess if your work will be a good fit. Practice writing thoroughly about your work and your practice, and be intentional about what you want your viewer to learn.

Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists/photographers, what is your advice?

I think it's really important to start being aware of how people, particularly your audience, will connect emotionally to your work. Sometimes it will be in ways you didn't expect, and it might be different for different people. Learn who to share your work with, and don't take it personally when it doesn't resonate with some people. The other thing that I would say, is to examine what is stopping you from making art, or making more art, or making your best art. It might be a habit you need to drop or develop, it might be to do with your working environment, or it might be to do with mindset, either way, give the art what it needs, and try to remember as much as possible how lucky you are to be able to do what you do.

To view more of Constance Regardsoe’s work

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