Alice Browne

            

Can you briefly describe what you do?

I look, think and make paintings. The paintings are a sum of their parts: layered spaces made from colour and brushwork. They are influenced by a history of represented space (in painting, photography etc.) and my perceptions.

What drives you to make work?

Curiosity

Can you tell me something of your day-to-day working practices?

I keep lots of things on the go and don’t plan any of them. It seems to be quite important to not care too much about any particular painting. Caring makes me too cautious. This way I’m always ready for failure. I put things away and come back to them sometimes a day later, sometimes 3 months later. My process varies – some paintings are quick and made of only 2 or 3 layers and others take 6 months.

The hardest decisions I make are about colour. Recently I’ve been choosing from a range of dry pigments as well as ready mixed tube colours which has really changed my palette.

I aim to get to the studio for 9am and work on between 5 – 10 paintings. Or sometimes I make drawings on paper. I often fail to complete more than 3 clues on a crossword at lunchtime but persevere for an unnecessary amount of time. I leave whenever I’ve stopped being able to see and think about what I’ve made (before I get too destructive) which is anytime between 3pm and 7pm.

How long have you been working in that way?

I’ve been making paintings the way I do since the final year of my BA at Wimbledon College of Art, in 2009.

My routine is still forming and changing as my studio time has increased since I started working with Limoncello Gallery earlier this year.

Which artists have had the greatest affect on your work?

This is a greedily long list….Masaccio; Philip Guston; Francis Bacon; Prunella Clough; Pieter Claesz; Jeff Wall; Mary Heilmann; Max Beckmann; Mali Morris; Antoni Tapies; Juan Sanchez Cotan; Philip Allen

What, outside visual art, informs your practice?

Literature eg. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Cinema eg. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou by Wes Anderson; Dr Zhivago by David Lean; Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick

Mythology

Music eg. Wild Beasts; The National; Pixies; Explosions in the Sky

Architecture eg. Churches

Mountains

How would you like people to engage with your work?

With curiosity and acceptance of the validity of their thoughts about it.

Have you seen anything recently that has made an impression?

Edward Thomasson and Lucy Beech’s video of their performance Holding It Together

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon?

Yes! Very exciting…I’m currently working towards a show in the Jerwood Project Space in September and my first solo show at Limoncello Gallery in November