ARTIST INTERVIEW: REBECCA GUYVER
Rebecca Guyver
Please introduce yourself. How did you develop your passion for art into a career?
I was the child who came home from school and did her homework as fast as possible so she could turn the kitchen or the living room into a studio. I set things up, I copied things, I made people sit for me. I was relentless. My parents were good sports. I guess I have never stopped making. I say, in jest, that painting and drawing is how I ‘medicate myself’. Perhaps it’s true.
I am also disciplined. I do the things I don’t like to do as well as the things I enjoy. Painting is a job. I go to the studio and work. Like many lucky people, I like what I do, so I do it as much as I can. I have a routine that means I work at least a twelve hour day. I also loved teaching and I did that for quite a long time before I became a full-time painter. I didn’t call myself a painter until I was in my late 40s. Becoming one was a series of baby steps.
My mother is an artist. She concentrates her artistry in her garden and textiles. It is not surprising that they are prominent in my work. I was selected at 12 to take part in life drawing with the high school kids. That boost of confidence made me feel like an artist. I had a boyfriend who drew constantly and whose parents were painters, and he modelled the enchantment of joy at the simplest arrangement becoming an exciting motif.
I went to Stanford University and thought I’d do something other than painting, but it wasn’t long before I set up a ‘studio’ in the basement of my freshman dorm and was finishing my English coursework as quickly as I could so I could paint. And when I took a life drawing course with Nathan Olivera at the end of my freshman year, I had an epiphany thinking, ‘this is where I belong’. I graduated with a degree in Studio Art with a painting and drawing emphasis.
I met my husband in Kenya where I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I taught English in a remote village and drew in the lunch hour and in the evenings by candlelight. We moved around and eventually ended up in the UK. I submitted to some opens in London and my work was accepted, over and over but I still didn’t have the space or the time to work full time in art. It wasn’t until my late 40s that I did and that is what I do now.
What initially drew you to paint still life?
Putting objects together until they create some sort of story and harmony and tension at the same time is like a puzzle. Setting up my still life can take an hour or more. I have a chaotic studio full of stuff that I sift through. It is not a planned thing and I have no idea where I am going when I begin. I usually create disorder in the studio and change my mind often before I settle on something. At this point I still have no idea where it’s going to finish, and I like that. I like the uncertainty of wondering if I can ‘pull it off’. I think of painting as akin to magic and the still life is like a bag of random words that you arrange into something of meaning. Still life suits my character I like to make order out of chaos.
'Patch of Sunlight on a Yellow Wall' - the Goldfinch
What is the significance of the objects you paint in your still life? How do you establish the composition?
I was taught by abstract expressionist and the Bay Area painters and the way they taught me was to forget everything I know each time I pick up a brush. Setting up a still life is about everything coming together to create something that works. I don’t choose to paint something that I can’t bear to look at, so I am trying to achieve harmony, usually.
I begin with colour or a new object. Very occasionally I have an idea or a mood I want to capture. I try not to think and as I place and remove objects, I remember things like, “I need more height there’ or ‘should I bring that forward?’ or ‘is there enough variety’ or ‘Will a different colour or more of that colour help?’ It doesn’t work until it does.
I also like to vary things. If one painting has a dominant pink feel the next painting won’t, although I am very into gold now because I bought an out-of-date wallpaper book with lots of gold in it and I love the challenge of the imagery in the book and the gold!
Tell me about the process for creating your piece, ‘Taming the Dragon’. What inspired you to create this painting? What narrative would you like to relay to the viewer?
Making Chinese New Year paintings has become a ‘thing’ for me. I lived in Singapore for five years and our daughter was born there. We are a family of traditions and celebrating it in some small way is part of my calendar. My mother is also crazy about dragons. Our son is marrying a gorgeous woman who grew up in Hong Kong.
I found a pair of dragons on Ebay and ordered them. I thought my mum could have one and I would get the other. They arrived a few weeks later, wrapped in Chinese newspaper. Qi Lin has the body of horse and the head of a dragon and they are a blue green, one of the lucky colours of 2024. Dragons are auspicious and symbolise power, nobility, honour, luck and success. That was where I began as I assembled the objects for this painting.
I paint in egg tempera and it is a counter-intuitive process. It dries quickly which suits my impatience. I begin abstractly laying down colour and as the painting goes on I correct and correct, moving from bigger to smaller brushes. These small paintings take me anywhere from 3 days to a week.
Choosing a title is the way I finish a painting. I stop and research some of the objects, colours, words until I think I know about anything subconscious I wasn’t aware I might be saying. I believe things go in through my eyes and out through my heart and the subconscious part is often the most interesting. I combine symbolism, colour, pattern, all the things of painting to create my stories. In this world where power plays a dominant role, perhaps Taming the Dragon speaks to my belief that treading quietly, being humble and seeing beauty, even in the quirks of the world, makes me happier and better?
Taming the Dragon
Who is your greatest artist inspiration? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?
I can’t really answer that because I am inspired by most things and many artists. Today I have been thinking about the Matisse exhibit at the Royal Academy a few years ago. The exhibition juxtaposed Matisse’s paintings with his objects. It described how he would get very excited about the shape of a chair or a tea pot. I can relate to that, and I have looked at Matisse throughout my life. I grew up in NYC and saw lots of art as a child. I hunted down Matisse, Bonnard and Vuillard paintings all over Europe in my twenties and coming upon one in the National Gallery in Washington on a snowy day took my breath away. It happened again at Christie’s one day a few years ago. Matisse is always there speaking in my ear.
What are your future aspirations as an artist?
All I want to do is paint! I made some bigger egg tempera panels recently so will work on those. I have a folding screen to tackle. I did my first art fair this year and it was great. I’d like a gallery. Then I could just paint and spend less time do the stuff that feels more like hard work.
Why do you think art is important in society?
On a personal level, when I haven’t been able to paint enough, I am not my best self. Painting is part of my identity. I think that everyone is an artist but not everyone is an obsessive maker as they grow up. Some people get out of practice with using their hands and their heart to make art. Some people need to find their artist voice to be happy. Others need to be in the presence of pieces that are of the hand and the heart to feel complete. I think art is a language and it unites us as humans. Creativity comes in many guises so I don’t think that painting and drawing is the only art, either.