SPOTLIGHT: EDITION ONE: a quarterly online series

EASTWOOD FINE ART: Your work draws on the traditional genres of still life and depictions of the natural world to create vibrant and playful settings, could you tell us about your sources of inspiration? 

GEORGIA FIENNES: I studied Fine Art in Boston. Art schools in America use fairly traditional teaching methods similar to the ones used in Florence with long days of drawing, painting, and sculpting from life; learning to really look and see. I then came back to finish my degree in the UK where much more conceptual teaching techniques were employed. It was then that I learned to apply and adapt. I wanted to create realistic paintings of visually legible scenes and images that equally allow the viewer room to question their pairings and settings.

Over the last 25 years, I have sought inspiration from so many different places – these have varied as my life has evolved but I have frequently returned to the same sources: animals, china, lighting, textiles, interiors, and nature. The first questions I am always asked are where do you find your inspiration and why the animals? I regularly use antique prints of flora and fauna as a jumping-off point, but I think we are so visually overstimulated these days that it’s not a case of where to find the inspiration (because it is everywhere) but more a case of how to condense it to create something meaningful and beautiful. As for the animals – they give my paintings soul, a way of conveying personality and feeling. I don’t like the emptiness without them.

EASTWOOD FINE ART: Your ceramics take everyday vessels and transform them into beautiful objects for contemplation, could you tell us about your practice and how you first began working in ceramic? 

KATE SEMPLE: I grew up in South Yorkshire. Mum was an antique dealer specialising in vintage ceramics. Beautifully formed vessels adorned with painterly brushstrokes filled our family home, from Beswick to Clarice Cliff; each piece had a price sticker underneath and they would come and go. Dad was an engineer who in his spare time would tinker in his handbuilt workshop, turning felled wood into beautiful vessels for his loved ones.

I took Ceramics O level whilst at Doncaster Art College studying Fine Art Foundation 1987. This is where my curiosity in ceramics began. Throughout my life, I have regularly taken part in ceramics evening classes, though it wasn’t until the start of the pandemic that I began handbuilding with clay at home. I lost my father at the start of this time and cared for Mum who died a year later. During this period clay became a focus and distraction, a place to channel positivity whilst navigating such difficult times. I feel this is why my work bears soulful and emotive registers. I'm not looking for perfection – my work is responsive and energetic. I work standing, which I think helps to imbue my pieces with energy and individualism. To encourage a sense of uniformity I will often work on more than one piece at a time, as with these candlesticks. This also helps to consolidate their forms whilst I'm building. 

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