Newfoundland Boy

Textured and Abstract Painting

• Wayne Jones • Episode 29

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Wayne Jones talks to St. John's artist Emilee Hickey about her painting ▬

LINKS
Wicked Winds Art Studio (Instagram), https://www.instagram.com/wickedwindsartstudio ▬

Wicked Winds Art Studio (Facebook), https://www.facebook.com/people/Wicked-Winds-Art-Studio/61550806900534/?mibextid=LQQJ4d ▬

PAINTING
From the Heart, painting by Emilee Hickey, https://photos.app.goo.gl/h2Tjx7rQTZPLzrnd6 ▬

Wayne:

Hi, I'm Wayne Jones. Welcome to Newfoundland Boy, a podcast about me and the Canadian province of Newfoundland. This is episode 29, "extured and Abstract Painting, which consists of an interview and conversation I had last week with a young St John's artist named Emilee Hickey. Hi, Emilee, thanks for coming on the podcast.

Emilee:

Hi, Wayne, thank you so much for having me.

Wayne:

We met, so to speak, on Instagram, because I'm not sure how I came across you. I was interested in art galleries and things and suddenly your name was there and I really liked a painting that you had up there and ended up buying it, and then I asked you if you wanted to come on the show. So I wonder if you could start by, just for listeners, giving them an idea of sort of the kind of painting that you do, but also sort of where it fits in your life, that sort of thing.

Emilee:

Yes, absolutely so. Regarding the piece that you from myself myself, that was one I'm calling it From the Heart. That was just an idea. I kind of took it and I had some palette knives and I was just spreading acrylic paint and then I was layering a gloss over top of it because it felt right to me.

Emilee:

So initially, my art practice began through textured art, and that's kind of what I like to do. So I began by making art on canvas out of plaster, a mixture of plaster, gesso, Mod Podge. As I became a little more experienced, I switched over to modelling paste. It holds up much better. So that is primarily what I sell, but I also do some abstract. Abstract is challenging in that it's very subjective. So what I might find abstract, somebody else may look at and say, That's a mess, or vice versa: I may hate a piece and somebody else might love it. So it's very interesting. Art in general is subjective. I do promote myself on Instagram. I have a page, also a Facebook page, and then you can find me at markets as well. So in your case, we connected through Instagram and that's a good sign to me because I'm getting out there in some way. So thank you so much for connecting there.

Wayne:

Yeah, no, of course, I'm actually super interested in abstract art, and that's how that's what drew me there as well. You were sort of making a distinction there between not so much the difference between textured art and abstract art, but sort of, if if I'm reading it right, you're sort of doing them for two different purposes, or or did I hear that wrong?

Emilee:

So I initially began by doing textured art. Basically, where I launched my business from is I had done a ton of textured art, and how I got into that was my friend and I had been looking at it. We saw it on TikTok, Instagram and said, Wow, that's really cool, really fun, let's try it. So we began in January of 2023, just kind of messing around with some plaster on a couple of canvases and we liked it so much I said, Gosh, I'm going to keep doing this. And so I did keep doing it. And then I kind of tried my hand at abstract. So how I started there was I did a few free courses with the Milan Institute. I believe they're located in Georgia. I came across them on Instagram myself and then I started going with abstract. So I'm not necessarily doing them for two different purposes, it's just I began with the textured and then I really liked abstract. So now I just do a mixture of both.

Wayne:

Right.

Emilee:

The abstract, I normally don't have an idea for what it's going to turn out like, whereas the textured I normally have a goal when I begin.

Wayne:

Listeners could infer even from what you just said already about textured art, but maybe you could just say in a little more detail about what that, what exactly that is.

Emilee:

Absolutely Textured art is generally, when I do it on a canvas, it's not necessarily 3D, but it's raised off of the canvas so it has a couple of inches for depth. I start, like I said, now with modelling paste, so I might cover an entire canvas of any size in modelling paste. Then I take a plaster trowel or any— that's what's really fun to me, any kind of object that would give me a different pattern, like I use hair clips or I use back scratchers, spoons, anything, to drag it through the paste to give it different depth and then create different patterns with it. So some are arches, some are records. I shape them with a plaster trowel, like what you would use to shape swirls on a ceiling. I spin that in a full circle and I make vinyl record-like pieces of art. Those have been really well well received pieces of art Um. Other ones that I've done lupines lupins, different wildflowers. So, just using palette knives, I fill it up modelling modeling paste and then I put the paste down on the canvas using the paddle palette um to give it a different shape and I see what comes out at the end.

Wayne:

hose textured include, uh, comprehend comprehend, do you ever do this, this—l ike were talking about sort of flowers and back scratchers and that sort of thing, like pieces of things, kind of like sculpture in a way or not? Is that not part of what textured art is?

Emilee:

So for myself I haven't gotten into that, but there are some really talented folks who I've seen on the internet and they include a ton of different things. I've seen types that look like glass, but I guess that's more so resin, but of course that does have dimension, on either a wood palette or whatever the surface that they're creating on is. Textured art, I guess, is anything that has kind of dimension or depth to it. But for me I just work so far with modelling paste.

Wayne:

What I was really drawn to and when I looked at the piece that I saw and looked at various pieces, but the one that I ended up buying anyway was the super vibrant colors, and I noticed comments on Instagram. A lot of people say that, so I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but that was really striking. And also there's a kind of, with the piece that I have and with many of them, I think, or some others of them anyway, there's a kind of symmetry about them as well. They're not sort of abstract in the sense of at least some of the ones I saw, swirly and things like that and sort of all over the place, and this corner is different from this corner. There's a kind of symmetry a lot of times. Is that right? Would you characterize it that way?

Emilee:

I would definitely agree there. There's something about lines for me. So for the piece that you purchased from me in particular, I was very taken up with lines or something that week, so I was just drawing. I don't know if you can include in the show notes maybe a picture of that.

Wayne:

I will.

Emilee:

Thank you. I was using trowels and different- sized palette knives for that one, and I mean on the edges they're rough, but I just wanted a ton of different vertical and horizontal lines going across it. So I wouldn't necessarily say for sure that all of my work includes line work, but when it comes to abstract, I think I've definitely found my style in that I start with some lines and then sometimes I layer over different shapes. I just finished one this week and I began the same process that I did on your piece, using different size palette knives, and then I just started doodling over the top of it with different coloured paints, and it was very vibrant.

Emilee:

that you commented on the color, colour I do tend to gravitate towards vibrant colors. Now, however, when I began, some of the first big pieces that I made as commissions were for my sister's hair salon. I swore after that that I would never do bright colors again because it was so time-consuming. Now that's just what I love to do.

Wayne:

That's funny how that is. You never know how things go. I wanted to ask you two questions, sort of stepping back and a little more kind of general. You mentioned that you were, you know, you started off doing textured art and now you do both textured and abstract. Maybe this is an impossible question, but, like if you had to put your finger on or speculate about, like, why is it that your head, your artistic talent, your aesthetic, went to abstract, instead of, say, you know, the ocean and representational and that sort of thing? Do you ever think about that? Why you ended up like that, so to speak?

Emilee:

That's really funny. I do, and I think a lot of it is that it's easier for me, abstract is just, or textured in general is just— I can kind of put whatever I want on the canvas and see what becomes of it. Whereas, say, if I were drawing or painting, I feel like maybe the finer details matter and I don't necessarily know if I have those skills to harness the finer details. As a child I always drew. Through high school I did draw and paint. But to look into the details, I don't necessarily know if I have those mastered, so I've kind of stuck to what pleases me and what feels fun, whereas if I were to focus on fine details it does become frustrating.

Wayne:

Yeah, I hear what you're getting at there and sort of the same kind of thing applies to all the arts. That's what I've found. I've interviewed writers and, you know, sculptors and journalists and all sorts of different artists, playwright playwrights, for example. There's a certain theme in all of them, like the thing you're saying. You said something earlier about, I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. A lot of people who maybe don't practice art would think, H ow could that be? How can you start something and not know how it's going to turn out? They think that it has to be, you know, all mapped out and you know exactly what the end piece is going to be like. But people write like that as well, right? People write novels like that, where they start with a line or a word or an image and they have no idea where it's going. Now, you probably can't be like that for the whole process, but you don't need to know everything before you start. So it's kind of encouraging in that way.

Emilee:

One hundred percent. I do find myself sometimes putting pressure to make it perfect, but I really do like what you said In a lot of arts folks don't know how it's going to turn out and in some ways that's comforting.

Wayne:

So do you have a lot of abstracts, of course, or other abstracts, or from other artists are, I don't know I'll just use this term dark abstracts. So there'll be very dark colors and maybe, you know, blacks and dark blues and a certain kind of violence or in the the way it's all put together. Has that kind of thing ever come across you or come out of you, so to speak?

Emilee:

That is a really interesting question. So I did have a commission back in I think it was April or May and the client had asked for black, purple, and white and I did it, and I did it in my style and I worked on it for months and I think it was in July or August and I messaged them and I said, You know what, I hate this, I'm not proud of it, it's not something I would want my name on. So is there anything else that I can do? Or what do you think of this one? And they weren't honestly stuck on it, which I was happy to hear because I really didn't want it going out the door with my name on it because I was not proud of it, and they actually ended up ordering something completely different. So it's a really interesting question. I was really excited to do a dark piece and it turned out completely against my style.

Wayne:

But I'm curious about— I'm a writer, so I know that what someone writes is not necessarily what they believe in or anything like that, in fiction for sure, a lot of people make that mistake. A lot of people who assess fiction make that mistake. Do you in your, your other interests, say in film, or you know, just the things you consume, not what you produce, film or reading—d o you have dark interests there? Do you see what I'm getting at?

Emilee:

Yeah, I mean, true crime, I am a consumer of it. So that's a really interesting question. I do listen to true crime podcasts, I do watch the documentaries, but then I do find myself being very freaked out afterwards. So perhaps I create in vibrant colors because I prefer the sunny aspects of life, while not everything is sunshine and rainbows my art would reflect as though it is.

Wayne:

You're rebalancing the universe with light and brightness.

Wayne:

You know the thing— I almost always, every Saturday, go down to the Farmer's Market here. We both live in St. John's, Newfoundland, and you were down there last weekend, I think. Is that right?

Emilee:

Correct. Yes, yes, Thanksgiving weekend I was there.

Wayne:

One of the only weekends when I was either, I think, I was either coming back from Corner Brook or was busy with other things. And then I saw your picture on Instagram, and I thought a word I can't say here. I should have been there for that. How did it go?

Emilee:

No worries. So that was actually an event with the Iceberg Gallery Network and that is a nonprofit or a free network for artists. Here in Newfoundland they do incredible things; they host free events for artists like myself, to put themselves out there and get kind of foot traffic through to see their art and that sort of thing. But anyway, they had an event. I think were 35 art vendors.

Emilee:

I had a lovely day. I had the best day because I got to meet other artists like myself. I got so many tips from different people just like, Hey, have you tried using this medium? Oh, I bet it would be really cool if you did things in this style. They told me how to get prints so that my texture would show up, like the depth of my prints would show up, or the depth, rather, of my texture would show up in prints. It was just really lovely to be surrounded by like-minded people, because sometimes I do markets and it's, you know, a ton of different vendors who aren't all artists. So this one in particular was a really great event for me personally.

Wayne:

That's great. Yeah, it's always good to be— well not always, but it can be good to be surrounded by people in a certain way of like mind or with the same kind of inclination towards art as you have. Right, of course, that can be good. Speaking of that, or just sort of expanding a bit out from that, do you (I hate this term)— the art scene or the art community. Do you, apart from the markets that you mentioned, are there hangout sessions for artists or studio groups where people go? Do you know other artists in town that you hang out with and stuff like that? Or are you kind of independent and you do your markets and your commissions and stuff like that?

Emilee:

So I'm pretty new overall to the art community. I only launched my business in September of 2023. I joined the Iceberg Gallery Network sometime within 2024. So still really, really new to that group, but they're always hosting events. They have different exhibits. So, for instance, they have one coming up in November. It's called Convergence and it's a one- week long exhibit and there'll be pieces posted for sale and exhibit and they're also going to have live action or demonstrations, that sort of thing. So other artists like myself will be hosting different displays, different sessions that people can be hands-on during, I believe.

Emilee:

I've yet to kind of really get into that sort of thing, but I'm trying to seek out opportunities as they present themselves.

Wayne:

How much of your time do you spend on social media? I'm only on Instagram, so I don't know where, if you are anywhere else. Are you all over the place everywhere else. You mentioned Facebook, where you kind of have your site, basically, right?

Emilee:

So, yeah, I am only right now on Instagram and Facebook and I actually kind of tried dial back back the pressure that I was putting on myself. I found, say, back in the spring and early summer, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to make, you know, X amount of posts a week, film everything I was creating, and then I found just that was really time- consuming with editing and, you know, making sure everything looked right. It was a lot of pressure. So I kind of tried to dial back my social media presence.

Wayne:

Yeah, I hear you on that. I mean, even apart from anything to do with art, I mean that's a very sane statement. There's balance, right, you have a life. That's, in a way, the first, well, in a very real way, the first priority.

Emilee:

Yeah, 100%. I actually kind of, I guess, lost sight of, the bigger picture, because for a while, when I first launched, I was putting pressure on myself to continuously make new pieces and share them on social media and grow my following, and it just kind of came to a point where I was exhausted, I was tired, I was having health issues kind of as a result. So I really had to realize what's important. This began as a hobby and I was doing it for fun and the only reason I started selling or trying to sell was my spare room just no longer had capacity to hold my art.

Wayne:

You know it all starts with a trip down to Home Depot to get some masking tape. You're all in, right there.

Emilee:

That's it.

Wayne:

Emilee, thanks a lot. This has been super nice and thanks for coming on. I have your piece hung in my condo here in the guest bedroom so the guests get to see it.

Emilee:

Thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure. And thank you again for your purchase. It really means the world to me.

Wayne:

And that's all for this episode. Thanks for listening and please join me again next Tuesday.

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