3 Questions for Lillian Vaule (2022)
Cornelius: The paintings in your show "hundedager" depict dogs, plants, people, interiors. There is a closeness to everything that creates intimacy. As a viewer one feels like stepping into the life of another person. How do you choose what you want to paint?
Lillian: You have mentioned that the content of my work could possibly be characterized by the experience of the lockdown and the pandemic. There might be something to this as the subject matter in the exhibition is completely based on imagery from my home. We were all very restricted for a while. For me, so many impressions are equally interesting, but in that moment it seemed only natural to focus on the "near and dear". This was not a problem, quite the contrary, it might have helped to narrow things down.
As I am in full-time employment it is important to me to be able to work from home. To have a subject matter is not really a problem. It's more about arranging the elements. There is a connection between the forms you see and their inherent quality. I Think the subject matter in the paintings at sipgate shows, dogs, children, plants, interior, might be based on a feeling of attachment to their value. The purpose of a flower pot, watching a plant grow, or how you connect to your children and animals. At the same time, I am just arranging shapes on a surface.
My paintings are more or less based on photos I take. Sometimes I might be looking back at images and find something interesting. Often, in that moment I find something I want to investigate further. As in the painting of Snoopy (dog) sitting in my lap looking down at Haku (dog). They happened to be there and I liked the curled-up shape of a dog on the rectangular shaped white rug. That is when I decide to take a photo to paint from in the future.
C: Your exhibition at sipgate shows focuses on paintings and drawings/ sketches on paper. The works on paper have a preparatory feel to them as if they are getting the paintings started. It's an almost classical approach to painting.In regards to the materials used though there is quite a variation between ink, pencil, watercolour on paper and painting on canvas or MDF and smaller boards. Sometimes there are obvious traces of older works being painted over. It gives it an air of nonchalance. It looks like you don't need a specific set up for making images?
L: I tend to work on a few things at the same time. Sometimes a piece I used to think of as finished will need some reworking. Other times it will be completely changed. It is that question of when is a painting done? It can feel like freedom to look at something you used to like and just cover it up, start afresh. It is a tendency I have. It can be annoying – sometimes I might regret later. I often think the underlying layers can give the image a depth though, it’s something human. Circumstances change, so do we. I work on different materials. It is something of the same idea. I like to be able to do a painting there and then, when I feel like it. I will take whatever is at hand, be it a wooden board, canvas or paper. At the same time, I do like to work in series and have done this quite a bit with drawings. Work on paper can become preparation for a painting. I might use the drawing combined with a photo to paint from, and what I see around me can come into it. My specific setup has had to change a few times since I moved back from London to Norway. Each time I need to make space for working and I make sure I can easily move between painting and drawing. As I now live in a flat it is nice that both dogs and plants etc. are nearby. I like to work in a domestic environment. There is a conflict though between this and having "A room of One's Own" (to quote Virginia Woolf). There is a struggle between domestic family life and making work.
C: What's next? Is there something specific you will want to do in the future? A certain subject you want to work on or something you want to experiment with?
L: I have a few things I want to work on, both painting and drawing.
After my short stay in Dusseldorf, for the sipgate show, I started a series of larger drawings that are done on top of older drawings I did years ago. The old pencil drawings are sketchy and were based on military boot covers. They looked like drapery but they did not resonate with me anymore. I like the abstract form of the drapery though, and again there is something classical about this - how a fabric drapes around a shape, be it a curtain, a blanket or clothing. I thought this would work well as a backdrop for some new “dog drawings”. As a dog owner I found it very liberating to see how different my life would be in Dusseldorf where you can bring your four-legged friends into a shop! This led me to take pictures of people and their dogs out on an errand in the city and I started drawing from these photos.
Currently I am re-stretching several paintings on canvas that should lead to new works. They are all the same size. These potential new paintings will need a lot of reworking and investigation as I go along. I’m quite interested in how an abstract pattern works with a more familiar shape (like in the painting “two dogs resting”, that’s in the show). I will paint in oil which is great for the layering of colours. The subject matter will still be something familiar to me, be it plants, animals or even a feeling I get from something I am reading or or a photo I am interested in. I usually start with an idea of a subject, and this will change as I respond to what unfolds when I paint.
Simultaneously, I continue doing sketchbook work, as I myself wonder what will be next.
C: Dear Lillian, thank you!
(The interview draws on conversations during the install of Lillian Vaule’s show „hundedager“ at sipgate shows with the addition of follow-up emails in October/ November 2022.)
