Where is your studio?
My studio is in my home in St.George.
I’m a very early riser so it suits me to have a space that I can get to easily at strange hours.
Apart from the turps fumes, it seems to work well for now.
How do you find living and working in the same space? Do you organise your day into working hours or is it more organic?
I find this hard to be honest, and it’s something I’ve been thinking more about lately. I can easily not stop with admin being a part of my day too sometimes. I don’t paint everyday, so I guess this is having a break? Haha
But yes, I’d say very organic.
A little too organic! How often do you get to see exhibitions? Are there any recent shows that stood out for you?
If I’m honest I don’t go to many, and I’d like to make that more of a thing. I know when I’ve been to exhibitions in the past I find it super inspiring. Seeing art that isn’t on a screen is definitely the way to experience it.
I think the majority of the work we see is on Instagram, direct from the artist's studio, but yeah, there's nothing like seeing the real thing, curated and presented as a body of work.
Aside from your own work, what have you got pinned to the studio wall?
I have lots of postcards pinned to my wall that I’ve picked up along the way, some are design based, also pictures of buildings and landscapes, and some artist ones too. I have bits that people have sent me, little notes and photographs stuck to the walls. I also have stuff I’ve found on beaches hanging on string, weird shaped rocks and twigs I’ve made mobiles and hangings from.
Do these postcards serve as starting points, or perhaps anchor points for your work? I’m interested because I know your paintings feature a lot of still life and have featured portraiture heavily in the past, but I’ve seen very little work looking at landscape or the built environment. Can you tell me about your process?
They did once but not anymore as I’ve seen them a lot. A lot of paintings lately have come from my head, or from still life that I’ve set up in front of me.
When I was painting portraits I was looking at different images of people online from Pinterest. I then merged different features from them to sort of create a new person. Sounds a bit strange writing it.
I also got a few people to sit for me to paint from.
Generally these days, a lot of painting ideas are me imagining colour and shape in my head. I’m also very influenced by interior space. Again, looking at images I find, I get inspired for different colour palettes and paint texture.
Also, whenever I’m out and about, I get very inspired by colour combinations and shapes that help with composition.
It’s a bit like having an imaginary view finder, framing things I see and storing them up there.
I do this a lot if I ever go abroad, as well as taking lots of pictures to bring home and refer to.
You talk of colour and space and texture in much the same way that Josef Albers or Rothko might, and actually I've recently discovered Stanley Whitney, who's paintings use colour with such intelligence and democracy. Have you ever worked purely with colour, forgoing any figuration? Does art like that interest you?
I think about painting in this way a lot, more than ever these days. I’m definitely at a stage where I’m thinking about producing something new, and changing it up again. I love the idea of simplifying everything and focusing on colour and shape. Although this isn’t simple, it’s probably harder, no room to hide.
Painting is a feeling, the more I do it the more I’m certain of this. I think that’s what also makes me want to create art where there’s nothing obvious to focus on.
Jay Harper has work in an upcoming show at Morgan’s, Falmouth. May 2nd 2024
All Studio photos taken by Mercedes Polo Portillo
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