Katy Sullivan is an English portrait artist, whose second ever oil painting was selected for the Holburne Portrait Prize exhibition, where it won the People’s Choice award. She can be found at http://katysullivan.co.uk/
- http://katysullivan.co.uk/
Can you explain a little of what makes you particularly interested in portraiture?
I’ve always been interested in drawing faces. I used to go to an art club when I was twelve run by a wonderful lady called Nikki Simpson. She encouraged us to draw whatever we liked. She never criticised but occasionally she’d add a couple of lines to your drawing and make it look wonderful. I used to draw popstars and this is where my fascination with drawing faces started. I drew a lot at University and continued to be fascinated by faces. There was a second hand book shop which used to sell old National Geographic magazines and I used to trawl through these just trying to find interesting faces. I remember one image I found which was very powerful. I drew it in pencil and then again in pastel. Recently I looked at the image again and realised the effect this picture had on me. I’m always looking for that magical unexplainable something which I found in this image.
How do you select your subjects for personal projects?
I recently have wanted to stick to painting my children. I’ve found that people respond differently to seeing pictures of my children than they do to my other paintings. I like their ideas and their creativity and try and reflect this when I take photos. I want them to feel part of what I do.
When working on commissions, how does the creative process work with regard to pose, etc?
I just take lots and lots of photos and suddenly I’ll see something that visually works really well and then I snap like crazy. I sometimes have quite fixed ideas about the kind of thing I want but I find that rarely works well.
Do you prefer to work from photographs or to have the subject sit?
I quite openly work mainly from photographs. I’ve been looking at photographs of faces ever since I was young and it has got to a point now where the best way for me to see an image is from behind a camera. For me it’s more about spending a significant amount of time with my subject so that I understand their face, their personality, the way they move and their mannerisms. This isn’t something you get from somebody if they’re sat static in front of you. It takes quite a while for some people to be comfortable in front of a camera but I regard getting something quite “natural” as a very important part of the process. It sometimes takes a while to get the right image.
"Disneyland" - http://katysullivan.co.uk/
You worked as a GP until 2005; such a career change is fairly dramatic but it’s obviously one with which you’re very happy. Do you feel that your medical career has had any influence upon your artistic work?
It’s had an effect in a way that you wouldn’t perhaps expect. I didn’t paint for a quite a while because I was scared to try. It was when I got to the conclusion that what I was doing was nothing compared to the responsibility of being a doctor. If I went wrong I didn’t hurt people’s lives and at the end of the day it was only a picture. The other thing about treating people that are sick is that it’s a bit of an equaliser. You regard people as to how ill they are and not by their status or educational achievement. It has given me confidence in myself and with meeting people from every kind of background. The other thing I was always very aware of a GP was that life is short!
Would you have liked to go to Art School?
I thought hard about art school when I first gave up medicine but I think I would have hated it. I hated Art at school. I tried twice to take an Art A level and gave up twice totally dispirited by the whole process. I take great pleasure in finding my own way. However I have had a couple of people who I’ve respected and with gentle encouragement and advice have helped my art develop. I do think it is very important to have some awareness of art history but I’ve gained a strange but very informed kind of education through the internet.
When you took up drawing again, you went through a period of developing your skills. What did that involve?
It was interesting – I really hadn’t drawn anything for ten years. However the desire to draw my kids was really strong and I was forever taking photos of them. I also met an artist who I was brave enough to show my old work. He simply said “You’re good – you could do it for a living” and that was what I needed to hear. I then had maternity leave and this was the space in my life that I needed to try drawing again. Friends saw the pictures that I was doing of my kids and then the word spread. People really liked my pencil sketches and I learnt “on the job” – my drawing skills developed quickly doing frequent commissions.
You’ve recently begun to work in oil – why did you choose this technique?
I would love my work to be accepted for the BP portrait award and for that I needed to learn how to paint. A friend insisted I try oils. I did one painting which I started in 2004 – I painted it really slowly, going back to it every few months and doing a little bit more. I realised that I did enjoy it and what I wanted to do would be achievable. However it wasn’t till 2008 that I really started. I saw a call for entries for the Holburne portrait prize. I remember saying to my husband that I really wanted to enter and he doubted very much I could get accepted on my second painting. I wanted to prove him wrong! It got accepted and to my great surprise it won the People’s Choice prize. I haven’t stopped painting since. It’s something which feels like it comes naturally to me and it’s simply that I love the feel of oil paint and what can be achieved with it.
How do you see your work developing? Do you have any goals for the future?
My big goal has always been to be accepted for the BP portrait award. I want to let any development take a natural course. While I’m still thinking about what and why I’m painting and not bending to commercial forces I think it’ll just get more interesting.
