Happy...
SUNDAY STUDIO DAYS!
This week we chat with artist, surfer & teacher Erin Hollingshead.
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| Erin in her home studio surrounded by art |
We asked Erin...
Where do you get your inspiration?
My current body of work is inspired by direct observation from my personal experiences! When I am not at my day job (teaching the youth!) or in my studio, I am in or near the ocean.
I am currently fascinated by objects (seaweeds, shells, and ocean critters) that I find on my beach walks, what the water looks and feels like when I surf, surf and surf culture, and folklore stories and mythical beings from the ocean and other water bodies. I will walk the beach and collect items of interest and at the end of my beach walk, I will create still-lives that I photograph and turn into paintings. Sometimes I will collage together multiple images from different beach walks to create a composition. Lately, I've been making gouache paintings of people on the beach where I use this collage technique. Sometimes when I surf or snorkel, I will take a GoPro camera with me so I can capture the water to make my water surface paintings.
Sometimes I like to include a figure interacting with the water, which I will often use my own perspective (my own hand) for. When these images are used as references for my paintings, I am using my own point of view and perspective to bring the viewer to the water - to try to get them to imagine being there and transport them to the ocean.
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| Erin Hollingshead, Ripple, oil on board, 10"x10" (2022) |
My current favourite folklore is that of the Selkie - a mythological female being that can transform from their seal-form to their human-form, who feels that the ocean is their true home and place to be. My current series of Selkie themed works are lino-cuts, as I really enjoy the illustrative nature of this medium for these pieces.
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| Selkies Lino-Cut Print |
What are you working on right now?
I am currently working on a series of water-surface oil paintings. The goal with this series is to paint the water at dawn, mid-day and dusk to capture the different moods of these times of day on the water. Some pieces will include figures, and others won't. I hope to have this series completed by next summer (2026). I am a slow painter - because I only have around 2 or 3 hours of studio time in a day, but mostly because I really like to make my paintings meticulously detailed. I've been working on collecting reference images this summer and then I will spend my winter painting.
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| Erin Hollingshead, Marooned, oil on canvas, 12"x16" (2021) |
What's a typical day in the studio look like to you?
In the summer months I am on my break from teaching and I will work full-time in my studio - I usually use this time to start projects and organize myself so that I have a clear path set for my work over the course of the next teaching year.
A typical day during this time has me starting my morning slowly and enjoying breakfast and coffee while I make a to-do list for the day. I can not live without my to-do list - just a pad of sticky notes I keep on my desk. I try to do admin-work, creation and then "other" tasks each day to balance everything out. I also use this time to collect reference images for my paintings, illustrations and lino-cuts.
From September to June, I work in my studio for a minimum of 2 hours each night. Each day looks different in my studio as I try to cover all my bases - from creation, shipping artworks, organizational tasks, admin tasks, and social media. I could spend my time packaging and shipping artworks - which involves me sitting on my floor cutting cardboard, taping everything together and yellow envelopes everywhere. Or I could spend my time sitting down with a movie, show, podcast or a favourite album and working on carving lino-cuts, drawing or painting for a couple of hours. I am also always trying to film my process so I can make videos for social media and my YouTube channel. No matter what task I am trying to cross off my list, my studio time always has me comfy, caffeinated and thinking about the ocean.
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| Lino-Cut printing in progress |
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| The Surfer Lino-Cut |
Thank you so much Erin for giving us such insight to your practice.
Want to see what works we have available from Erin Hollingshead?
Thank you for reading this week's Sunday Studio Days blog!
Stay Tuned for more behind the scenes & creative spaces next week!
