Interview by Jimon
1. How would you describe yourself? I’m a 50-year-old painter living and working in a small country town in South West Victoria, Australia. I’ve focused on a studio painting practice for the past 25 years.
2. What’s your earliest memory of making art? In the mid-80s, when I was about 9 or 10, I used to draw every day—mostly political caricatures, ghouls, and graffiti lettering.
3. Are you self-taught, or did you receive formal art training? I’m entirely self-taught, although I studied graphic design at university in 1994. That was my first proper introduction to art history, and it helped me realize I didn’t want to design through compromise or negotiation for other people.
4. Your work blends abstraction and figuration. How do you decide the balance? It really depends on how I’m feeling on any given day. Sometimes I’m more literal with lines and forms; other times it’s more suggestive. I follow whatever keeps it interesting for me in the moment.
5. Your paintings have a raw, visceral energy. How important is spontaneity in your process? Spontaneity and intuition are essential. Ideas can change quickly—I’m always trying to stay excited by the marks and the direction the painting is taking.
6. What role does color play in your work? I tend to use a similar palette often. I’m drawn to certain colors and the way they interact intuitively. That process seems to work for me.
7. Do you see your paintings as portraits—even the more abstract ones? Yes. Even the most nondescript pieces feel like portraits to me—usually self-portraits. I often start with a recognizable image, but it evolves into something else, something not necessarily real.
8. Has your background in graffiti and graphic design influenced your current work? Absolutely. Being part of graffiti culture gave my studio practice a lot of confidence and energy, and taught me the value of repetition—like doing 50 tags in a row.
9. Which artists influence or resonate with your work? I’m always looking at Picasso, Julian Schnabel, Paul McCarthy, Impressionist painters, and 1980s New York graffiti. But I find inspiration everywhere—there’s so much imagery out there that influences and inspires me daily.
10. Do music, film, or literature influence your visual process? Yes, absolutely. I see music, film, literature, and visual art as all part of the same thing: words, sounds, and images. It all seeps in.
11. How has your approach evolved over time? My early shows were more experimental and raw, with a younger energy. Now, the work is more considered, shaped by everything I’ve learned over the years. Each show and painting lives in my memory and informs what I make now—with more patience and thoughtfulness.
12. Do you see your work as narrative or more psychological? Both. There are recurring themes—a seated figure, a boxer, a particular palette, apples, frogs. The repetition becomes narrative, and that narrative becomes psychological, filtered through my mental and physical state.
13. What do people often misunderstand about your work? Some viewers interpret the work as decayed, morbid, or scary—but that’s never my intention. It’s about the human condition—impressions of everyday life. Realism usually bores me; I want to create intrigue and beauty through subject matter and palette.
14. Are there any past works that still linger in your mind? Yes, many. The continuum of painting—the parallels between old and new—are always apparent to me. Each painting informs the next, directly or indirectly. There are no mistakes or failures—it’s all part of the process.
15. How do you balance productivity with creative intuition? For me, productivity is creative intuition. It comes in waves. Once you understand what’s involved in making a painting, you can give yourself over to that intuition fully—that’s how I stay productive.
16. Is painting cathartic for you—or does it leave you more exposed? Painting can be cathartic. It can be a lot of things all at once. Most of the time, it’s the best place to be—no thinking, just doing.
17. What does a good day in the studio look like? A good day is when I leave feeling satisfied with what I’ve achieved—knowing there’s more to come tomorrow.
18. Have you ever thought about quitting? What keeps you going? I’ve never wanted to quit. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.
19. How do you know when a painting is truly finished? A painting is finished when it’s finished—sometimes, that means never. When there’s just enough information on the canvas to lead you down a path and back again, then it’s done.
20. If someone stepped into one of your canvases, what kind of psychological space would they enter? They’d enter various states of the human condition. Hopefully, it’s a space where they can see themselves and relate in some way.
21. How can people find you on social media? Instagram: @rhyslee_