Artist in conversation: MARION ADAMS
Marion Adams was born in Middlesex but has lived in Devon for many years. She has explored many styles of art, taking life classes, workshops and in-depth courses on a range of subjects including digital art and mixed media. Marion currently works with a variety of media, including acrylic, gouache, ink and coloured pencils. Her main focus is abstract and semi-abstract painting and collage inspired by her exploration of local beaches, footpaths, woods and moorland. Her approach is intuitive and experimental, and her aim is always to encourage the viewer to connect with and explore the interior landscape of mood, memory and imagination through the ever-changing elements of the physical natural world. Marion is a member of Devon Artist Network.
Follow Marion here.
- Welcome to The Holy Art. Could you tell us a little more about your background, and how did you begin creating art?
I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember. I can still recall the painting I made on my first morning at school, which was of pig puppets from my favourite TV show. I was always borrowing art history books from the library and spent hours browsing through them, and I remember one Easter asking for coloured pencils instead of chocolate. My other main interest was writing, and while pursuing a career in this and raising my family, I kept my art inspiration alive by taking life classes, drawing in charcoal and pencil and working with pastels. Helping my children with their creative projects sparked my interest in collage. After returning to a regular art practice, I soon discovered a love for mixed media and abstract art, and I’ve been exploring that ever since.
- What art do you most identify with?
As with many things in life, my taste in art is quite eclectic. I love and appreciate many different styles and genres, from different periods in history. But I think in terms of genre, I have come to identify most with abstract art. Even within abstract art, it’s hard to narrow down what I identify with the most because I love any work that evokes an emotional response. I like ambiguity, layers of meaning, anything that requires the viewer to ask questions, to go beyond what is merely seen to what is sensed and remembered and imagined. So I like art that shows rather than tells, allowing the viewer to bring their own experience into their interpretation and understanding. I also write poetry, and to me abstract art is like poetry. It offers alternative ways of seeing and attempting to understand the world.
- Can you describe one artwork or series from your oeuvre that you feel was pivotal in your career?
It’s always experimental. My main inspiration derives from the fields and coast and moors near my home in Devon, and I seek to integrate my experience of being in that physical environment with the inner landscape of imagination, intuition and memory. I take what I see, hear, sense and feel as a starting-point, whether sketching en plein air or bringing this to mind back in my studio. I paint in layers, using a variety of tools, materials and techniques. I vary my approach, sometimes starting with mark-making using pencil, charcoal and crayon, or layering washes of different colours over the surface first. The work is a constant to and from between adding and removing, revealing and obscuring, expanding and editing. I see this creation as a process of discovery as much as a means to an end.
- What advice would you give to emerging artists entering the art world?
Just simply be yourself, in your life and in your work. As I said before, authenticity is really important to me. There’s no point in trying to second-guess what people want or will buy, as far as I’m concerned. If your work is genuine and from within, it will resonate with somebody somewhere. If it hasn’t yet, perhaps they just haven’t seen it yet. I’d also say to just keep going. Every painting isn’t going to be a masterpiece! I’m also a musician, so I know that even though practice doesn’t always make perfect, it certainly helps you improve, and you tend to learn more from your mistakes than when you get it right. It’s the same with art. And if you do ask for other people’s opinions, if you think they are worth listening to, use criticism constructively. Make sure that it helps rather than hinders or derails you
- What do you hope that the public takes away from your art?
As I said before, I don’t want to just make nice pictures. My hope is that people who see my art will be moved in some way, and that it will resonate with them and their own experience. The world can be a bewildering place at times as 2020 has proved. I like to think of art as providing somewhere to stop for a while, inviting us to step outside of our present reality and into a place that we may find familiar yet strange, challenging yet reassuring, safe yet exhilarating, where we emerge changed and ready to be changed again. I hope that my work can contribute to that experience.
- Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?
I’m vegan and a strong advocate for animal rights. Blackfish, the famous documentary about the captive orca Tilikum, made a lasting impression on me as it’s a shocking example of how greed and exploitation of animals leads to tragedy for them and for us. So when I was taking part in Inktober, a yearly challenge to post art daily for a month, I depicted Tilikum’s plight in response to the prompt ‘Wild’ (cheating slightly by using colour and digital art). I received quite a reaction from friends and family, which encouraged me to use my art more to raise awareness, including designing a range of veganniversary cards.
- Can you describe one artwork or series from your oeuvre that you feel was pivotal in your career?
It’s hard to narrow this down to one artwork or series as I feel that my work is constantly evolving. There have been several what I call ‘breakthrough’ paintings which have informed my direction, but the one I’m going to choose is actually quite recent. I mostly work semi-abstract but love pushing towards more abstraction, and I felt that this painting was a turning-point to move me in that direction. It’s called O Echo, and although there are landscape elements, it’s open to interpretation. For me it’s quite subtle and simplified with minimal line, but it has a quality about it that I’d like to develop in further paintings. It’s not for sale as I’ve become too attached to it!
- Which other great artists inspire you and why?
So many! Starting from the beginning, I love primitive cave art because of its energy and simplicity, and those gorgeous earth colours. As a child, I was a fan of Leonardo da Vinci, even saving up pocket money to buy a book about him. I loved the enigma he wove into his art, the knowing smiles, the pointing fingers. I know it’s almost a cliché now, but I’ve always loved Van Gogh as his art really does seem to mirror his inner life; he kept expressing what he had to. Authenticity is key for me; I’m not interested in just making nice pictures. Numerous modern artists inspire me, including Cy Twombly, for his poetic visual language; David Mankin, for his mastery of composition and evocation of place; and Louise Fletcher, for her generosity in sharing the ups and downs of artistic practice.
- What is your dream project?
I also love poetry, so I think my dream project would be to combine my art with poetry, my own and/or other poets’ writing, in some way. It’s something I think about quite a bit, but as with a lot of my projects in art and other areas, I often let ideas simmer away in the background until I know what it is I really want to do and what steps I need to take to make it happen. So at the moment, my focus is on other things, but it’s a project that will come to fruition when the time is right. Watch this space!
