Bethany Holmes sits down with Ariya Pereira
Studio Sits with…
Bethany welcomes me into her studio in rural Essex. She is warm, candid, and refreshingly unguarded. Her paintings, large and visceral and alive with colour, fill the space around us.
Before we begin, I find myself complimenting her website. She laughs and tells me about the process of writing her artist statement.
I got Matt Retallick to write what is basically my artist statement. I think with artists we have everything up in our heads and we're so passionate and enthused about our own work, but I could just never get those things down on paper. I didn't want it to be some AI rubbish, so I sat with Matt for about two hours and he interviewed me, which was like therapy, really. It was so interesting to zoom in on why I actually do things.
It's a fitting place to begin. Because for Bethany, the why behind her practice is everything.
Dan is at his studio, connected to his home in West Sussex. The space has the comfortable chaos of a working artist: stacked canvases line the walls, tables are crowded with paints and knick-knacks, and a drum kit sits in the corner. Behind Dan, to his right, is a painted Jaguar E-type bonnet. To his left, a painted vase. He explains that both are commissions he has been working on, and both have been unmistakably Baldwinised.
I ask my first question..
What began or prompted your connection with these psychological landscapes, do you see them in your mind before you begin painting?
Dan adjusts his sleeves and begins…