Selina Foote

                  

Can you briefly describe what you do?

I make small scale paintings on canvas and silk. I work with a rule based system to develop each painting, borrowing information from reproductions of historic paintings.

What drives you to make work?

Lots of things.

I am interested in reproductions of artworks. Living in New Zealand it can be quite isolated in terms of seeing particularly historical painting. So, much of the painting I am interested in I have encountered primarily through reproductions which have an interesting quality quite different to the art objects themselves.

I look at books a lot, and art journals and online documentation of shows.

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

I’m in studio after work from about 5 o’clock everyday and as much as I can on the weekend. I spend some time preparing canvases and making drawings that will then inform paintings. I usually have several paintings on the go at various stages.

I always start with a drawing of some sort first, and then apply various rules that build on these drawings to produce the final composition.

How long have you been working in that way?

About a year.

Which artists have had the greatest affect on your work?

Edouard Manet, Frank Stella, Robert Ryman, Mary Heilmann, Gordon Walters.

What, outside visual art, informs your practice?

I watch a lot of films. At the moment I’ve been watching Louis Malle and Elia Kazan films.

How would you like people to engage with your work?

My paintings are all developed through a series of rules which overlap, so they can be viewed as individual works or in pairs or groupings. I like the idea of paintings forming conversations between themselves. 

Have you seen anything recently that has made an impression?

Patrick Lundberg’s shoelace works

Richard Bryant’s works on paper

Sriwhana Spong’s silk works at Sue Crockford Gallery

And R. H. Quaytman’s new work (although I’ve only seen this online).

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon?

At the moment I’m working toward a solo show for next year.