What next for young artists?
Ah, the art world. The glitzy, hidden, scary art world. A world of free-flowing champagne, teams of studio assistants and cold hard cash. The image of the artist in mainstream society is a glamorous one, aspirational, sexy. Kicking back in an apartment in Soho, Manhattan possibly, with a studio elsewhere. A desirable life among the bohemian elite.
Yet, in the process of this, when considering the art student, a more chaotic image comes to mind. Individuals screaming into an overpriced canvas, rabid experimentation, sleep deprivation and more. Yes, when starting out at art school, this might be the case. But what is life like for up-and-coming artists? Artists in their early-20s with recognition but no Groucho membership. Well, having spent a Thursday evening out with a net and some binoculars I’ve found some. Three in fact, all living in different cities, specialising in different mediums with different outlooks and aspirations. Different but asked the same questions, classic.
Meet the scrumptious Elliott Highmore, a 21-year-old artist studying painting at Camberwell. Elliott’s opulent meta-paintings are now being sold on Saatchi Online for twice my monthly rent, alongside graphics merging art and the artist, soon to be seen in his pending publication ‘Art, Glamour, London’.
Then there’s Tom Royston, a newly graduated music student, who’s abstract art is getting snapped up quicker than toilet roll in lockdown 1.0. At only 23, Tom’s work is rooted in experience and feeling, channeled into visually appealing portrayals of movement and life, sold online and most recently, in Gallery No.3 in Essex.
Finally, we have Lottie Mac, a 21-year-old visual and spatial artist and curator, currently studying abroad in Berlin. Having already curated a sold out exhibition and zine – with all proceeds going to charity – Lottie is undoubtedly talented and driven. Lottie’s work aims to promote diversity and shed light on issues surrounding immigration, with this running alongside her rug business, Farrago Rugs.
So here we go, an insight into the lives of artists, still learning but on the rise…
If you had to explain your style of work to someone who wasn’t particularly interested in art what would it be?
Elliott: “I’d say it’s about decadence, a fascination with metropolitan living and hedonistic desires all influenced by escapism. This can be through indulgence or high fashion or through losing yourself in information. I express this through bold colours and expanding ceilings in the paintings, integrating typography into it so a new dimension is added, giving the painting a purpose. [My work is] there to educate and to exploit a feeling about a certain event, piece of clothing or feeling.”
Tom: “I like to paint and draw experiences that push people to be able to put themselves in the same experience. I think people who don’t quite understand abstract art can attribute shapes and animals and feel the emotions secondary to the things they can see in the picture which I like, a lot, because it attracts that wider audience. People who do get it can really feel the moment that I was feeling because if it was one of those things that I could explain then I obviously wouldn’t be painting.”
Lottie: “I’m an installation artist who aims to make art accessible to people who aren’t interested or represented in art, I want my art to be enjoyable. I chose curation to be part of my mediums not as a separate entity; I curate exhibitions to try and make them accessible to everyone. A lot of my work concentrates on the issue of immigration and celebrating immigrants in England. Now I’m diving more into looking at the notion of languages spoken in England, trying to transform something that’s learned about through reading into an installation that can be learned about through an experience.”
Can you explain a day in the life of what you do? Do you go through phases of making loads and doing nothing at all or is there a constant stream of creating?
Elliott: “Definitely, I’ll have weeks where nothing’s going on. I have this way of working where at night all these weird ideas will come to me and I’ll write them down. The next day I’ll open up five tabs on Photoshop and write the idea in each one and then, when random things come to me I’ll put them in there.
“Recently I’ve done a piece a day, but when I’m doing paintings I’ll work on the painting for a month. That’s the thing about making digital work, it’s so much easier. I used to spend ages designing a painting and then spend two months painting it but it just got to the point where the end painting wouldn’t have the same power as the original designs so like, I’ve made a distinction between my two practices.”
Tom: “I paint quite quickly but the paint takes a long time to dry and I’m working out of my room because I can’t afford to buy a studio space. I can only work on a couple of pieces at a time and I spend most of my work thinking. I have a policy that if I’m thinking about something and then I don’t remember it then it wasn’t a very good idea. Having trust in that lets me formulate my ideas and build scenarios and know what something’s gonna look like.
“I feel like I’ve honed myself creatively from the subconscious to do all my work, that’s quick and simple and easy because I think creating is one of the most difficult things. I don’t think anyone enjoys expressing themselves, songwriters hate writing songs and artists generally hate painting. I think setting it up in a fun way before and banging it out gives the maximum amount of fun being creative and not having pressure without too much conscious frustration of making art.”
Lottie: “I force myself to create almost everyday day. I’m quite lucky but obviously I experienced [not being productive] during lockdown like everyone did. If I can’t make myself then I’ll research other artists and pick up from them, so I never stop making. I read something the other day that’s like ‘an artist is their own art piece’ so if you’re constantly working on yourself you’re constantly making an art piece because in a sense you are the art.
I’m constantly nervous that I don’t have enough going so a lot of the time I’m looking for new job placements or internships. At most times I have three topics on the go at once, they’re all slightly different. So I do some researching into that and planning for my projects and then in the afternoon when my mind gets a bit more sleepy I do the physical making whether that be like painting, or doing a little sculpture or the rug making or something like that.”
How long have you been making and creating? What was the pathway to you making art that’s gone on to be sold?
Elliott: “I’ve been creative since I was a bubba. I remember I asked my dad for some Yougeo cards and he said no, so I went and made my own ones. I was four or five at the time, drawing these robot cards. The first piece of work I sold was to my friend’s mum, her daughter was going away to South America so I did a portrait of my friend Maisie. I think that’s what got the ball rolling, I thought if I want this to be my career then it’s going to have to involve some sort of enterprise.
“When I was on foundation course I started uploading a couple pieces to Saatchi Online; this summer I sold six or seven, and whilst I didn’t make a lot of money off it, I think it’s about getting artwork out there and eventually things will follow. The one amazing sale I had this summer was selling a painting through Saatchi online and it going to Switzerland. It’s so weird because [Saatchi Online] is so secretive. I know the name of the guy who bought it but nothing else, there was no way of messaging him to say thank you. It’s really strange to me that now this painting that I did over lockdown is in some Swiss guy’s house … it’s crazy.”
Tom: “My mum is a professional artist called Debra Royston. She only started painting when I was 12. It was quite a pivotal time where I thought ‘Oh well if she can do it, so can everyone.’ [What] a lot of people missed in our relationship was me seeing her going from completely disinterested to really talented. That’s when I realised creativity isn’t about can or can’t, or should or shouldn’t, it’s literally a do or don’t field. That’s why people are like ‘oh, I could paint that’, well you didn’t and that’s the whole point, it’s not more complicated than that.
“I did A-level art at school and I enjoyed it but art was never my calling because in school you learn about art in a very academic way, very monotone, art for a purpose. I went on and did a music degree, and then my girlfriend suggested selling one of my paintings. You see a lot of wallpaper artists who paint a painting just for the sake of it being very pretty, there’s no expression or feeling and there’s a market for that.
“If other people can do that and sell art then I might as well do it and make the best wallpaper art, but obviously as soon as I started, I wanted to invest myself into it and do it more conceptually. So the leeway of not taking it too seriously, not being afraid of failure and needing a bit of money, led me to put a picture on my instagram. I sold that painting really quick and then from then on it’s just been commissions and I don’t have any paintings that I haven’t sold.”
Lottie: “I’ve always been creative since I was a child. My mum has pictures of me as a baby doing painting but then I guess a lot of people have that. My mum has always been really creative and has pushed the creativity in my life because I wasn’t great at school academically. When I was 14 I tried to do a clothing brand which absolutely flopped because I don’t like fashion. At 14/15 I tried to think about how I could get a career from something creative in art.”
How much does social media play a role in you advertising and selling your art? How much do you rely on it.
Elliott: “I definitely rely on it, especially right now. In terms of marketing myself as an artist, I use my art Instagram as a portfolio. It’s so nice knowing that I’ve got this place where all my work is on [Instagram] in this perfect little grid that I can share to anyone. I can put hashtags on my photos and people all around the world might see it.
It’s also funny because my main account, when I post photos of me and they’re really photoshopped, I see that as another branch of my artwork – it’s kind of turning myself into the art. Without social media who would I be showing the work to? I’d be showing it to the people at uni, but it’s just a way for me to get people to see it.”
Tom: “Social media’s everything. Whenever I want a commission I post a picture and I get two to three commissions on average. I’ve got one post that’s got over 600 likes and that’s got me eight commissions because people see it and send it and want it. Having the power to reach anyone in the world cause you reinvest your money back into promoting your posts, it’s a momentum train, it doesn’t stop, it’s so good. The ability to do that on just Instagram is ridiculous. I think instagram and artists have a little love affair, it’s a very convenient social media for artists.”
Lottie: “Social media plays a bit part in selling. I don’t sell much of my work yet and for the work that I do sell, I do a lot of non-profit. It’s definitely helped in the sense of collaboration, [social media] is where I start a lot of my collaboration and work with other artists.
“Seeing work on Instagram benefits me the most when it comes to posting my own art, it provides a little bit of anxiety but actually forces me to work harder in a sense, so I actually think social media is a really good motivator for me, because I see other people shining and I think I want to shine too! I have a website as an artist but that get’s no attention compared to my Instagram so I think it’s a much more accessible way for people who aren’t interested in art to view art.”
How much has the situation with lockdown helped or hindered making your work?
Elliott: “When the first lockdown happened I was so f***ed off because I left my black paint in London and I was back home in Essex. I spent a few days going round the house accusing my whole family of taking it and then I went to order some online and it said it wouldn’t arrive for five weeks. I just wanted a bit of black paint but I had to wait a month for it.
“At first everyone was sitting there doing nothing, well after a bit it all like came back to me at once. I was doing my last unit at uni and the ball started rolling – the first painting I did for summer in lockdown was the one I sold to the Swiss guy. I also sold two to friends. I banged those two out in the same week and they’re two of my favourite paintings I’ve ever done.
“That was a really good feeling, driving to someone house and dropping off a painting, that wasn’t something I’d experienced before. I dunno whether it would’ve happened if lockdown hadn’t happened, whether something else would’ve happened. I think being in isolation with yourself, learning more about yourself and then thinking I could either sit here and watch Netflix all day or I could try and do something with it… it’s been quite good at times.”
Tom: “I don’t think Covid affects art, but I think it affects the hospitality route into an art career, such as live shows and meeting people social events. It’s forced me to be way more creative about how I’m going about meeting clients and trying to innovate.
I think art has a real potential to thrive within these circumstances, I’m seeing first hand a lot of people becoming passionately interested in art because of Covid and what art has to offer in life. Just because I’m an artist doesn’t mean I don’t get to think about clothes, movies, making an album, making the album art, making a music video, I can do all of it under the moniker of an artist.”
Lottie: “I was meant to have an exhibition in March 2020 and obviously that’s when everything went to shit so at first I was really heartbroken. Because I couldn’t do the exhibition, I was forced to make a zine instead, so I had to learn a whole new skill in the process of making that. I make a lot of work on the computer since moving to Berlin and not having studio space.
“I feel like it’s forced me to properly develop projects in a way I could’ve dismissed them before. Usually I would drop a project after a couple of months but it’s been nearly a year I’ve been working on [my language project]. [Covid] is a completely reflection of life and life’s ups and downs. Obviously your work isn’t going to be great or you’re not going to be confident in your work or have new ideas all the time, because that’s not the reality of life.”
What would your advice be for someone starting out in art?
Elliott: “I think finding the right institution for you in the right city is gonna affect to what kind of work you make and how much you enjoy making art. That’s gonna lead to being either successful or taking interchangeable skills you’ve learn from your degree and then applying them to different parts of your life.
“I think doing foundation was the best thing; you can tell the people on my course who didn’t do foundation. Not that their work is worse but there’s a different type of character that comes from the work, and a more modern kind of ‘meta art’ kind of feeling that you learn on foundation. You’re taught to expand what the meaning of art can be and [when] you start getting involved with that as an artist it’s really empowering. Especially when you show your art to your parents and they don’t really understand it… that’s a cool feeling.”
Tom: “Create something that the world needs. Create art thinking about Ikigai; the Japanese principle of the meaning of your life. It’s a split of what makes you money, what you’re passionate about, how it affects your relationships and what the world needs. You can’t make something and expect people to like it just because you did, if there isn’t a market for what you make then you’ve got to go and make that market.
“I think trying to make some next conceptual art about something that’s interesting, that’s a very academic way of thinking, forcing yourself to do that. It’s important to consider your art properly, communicate with yourself and learn how to speak to your subconscious through different mediums. [Your subconscious] moves way faster then your conscious head.”
Lottie: “Someone reached out to me the other day trying to put their portfolio together, they were like, ‘do I do it like they taught you to do it in GCSE’ – which was essentially just copying artists. My advice would be definitely do not copy other artists; break down why you want to make, and what medium you enjoy making in, and experiment.”
Do you think it’s necessary to go to art school in order to be successful in the art world?
Elliott: “Not anymore, I think nowadays if you’ve got something that’s different and you’ve got a skill and you use the means you have available to you, then you can definitely be successful. It depends what you define as successful, I think I would define being successful as having a sold out show in a different country and people buying the work. I think that’ll be the moment when I know I’m getting somewhere actually proper.”
Tom: “Not anymore, I think art school helps to meet some of the right people, it’s handy, definitely if you go to Central Saint Martins and you’re in with the zeitgeists. I don’t think you need an institution whatsoever. Institutions are just shortcuts to legitimisation, but if you can just bang it out then you don’t need legitimising – such as me, I’m making a full career without ever having to tell anyone that I’ve got credibility to do it; my work and my Instagram speaks for itself.
“A couple of months ago I was really interested in doing a Masters, but I have no interest in being mentored. I can just watch an interview with Picasso and it will put me in the mindset and teach me.”
Lottie: “Not at all, there are so many people who haven’t and have succeeded. The only reason I’m at art school right now is because I’m essentially funded to keep making. Uni does allow you freedom to not have to be working all day and then going home drained and having to make. It allows a bit of freedom in your mind and crits [critical evaluations] are good because getting feedback on your work that isn’t from friends is really helpful. There are pros, definitely.”
What things have been the biggest hinderance in your chosen career path?
Elliott: “Mental health, I mean I’ve used it to my advantage at times. I’d say the thing that hinders me these days is anxiety but then even today that anxiety turns around on itself and it tells me to get on with stuff. The dopamine you get from doing all these things sorts all that shit out. I’d also say money because art is an expensive thing to do.
“I remember in first year I would be at the end of my overdraft buying canvas. Then I’d think ‘can I even afford it?’ but I’m doing a degree, I’ve got to make sacrifices. You spend so much money, buying all the paints and the primer and then it just sits in the corner of your room. It’s all part of the process, it’s very humbling, so I’d say money and mental health are the biggest hinderances that I’ve faced.”
Tom: “The thing that has hindered me the most is Covid. I’ve had a bunch of commissions cancelled and all my shipments to America have been cancelled. Not being able to book out a studio space has been really peak, but I’ve never had that before because I started during the pandemic. You can’t miss what you never had. I’m still making more money than I was. Also, having to work really hard without anyone or anything to fall back on, it’s very independent. It’s very hard for anyone to purely back themselves like that.”
Lottie: “Surrounding yourself with people who don’t have the same interests as you. There’s this architect who said, ‘the nutrition that artists need is being around other artists.’ If you’re around people who aren’t making then it can really hinder your work and slow down your process. I think that was something that set me back a year or so, because I wasn’t around enough people who were interested in making.”
If you had unlimited money what would you be making? Would it be any different to what you’re making now?
Elliott: “Definitely, I would be buying a massive sculpture studio and be making some crazy installation stuff with metal. I’d be making stuff that you couldn’t make unless you had that type of equipment and I would be sending it all round the world. I’d be building galleries with 100 studio assistants, I’d just be sat there doing a little drawing and having someone make the work for me.”
Tom: “I would live in a warmer country because my mood massively affects my art and so does the sun and there’s not much of it in Leeds today! I think my art would be very similar, I’d just be putting more money into speeding up the process, marketing myself and hitting the right spots. I’d like to work with some big brands, but I think I’d use the money to make my life really comfortable so I’m in the headspace for making art.
It’s a difficult one because you never know what it would feel like having enough money to live forever. I would want to change the world with that amount of money and have a point where I have an incomprehensible amount of people following along, on the same wavelength as me.”
Lottie: “Oh my god… completely! If I had more money I would be making f***-off installations. In my foundation I designed a six room exhibition, each room was a different installation but it was huge scale and if I had unlimited money i would remake that. That was my celebrating immigration project which went through six periods of time where immigrants have helped make Britain what it is today. I would also make larger-scale works with a furniture line on the side.”
What would your DREAM life be when you’re 40?
Elliott: “Oh I must get a first otherwise I’ll be really annoyed at myself. I want to work in an industry like art investment or art law that’s art related but will allow me to have resources to say, have a studio and live in London and be able to buy the things that I want. I want a really successful career in a different avenue of art, in industry.
“There’s a reason why I work so hard and why I make work for people who are really enthralled that I’ve chosen this path. I am humble but I know that I am good at art otherwise I wouldn’t be in the position I’m at now, I don’t want to lose that but I also do want to explore other pathways that I could go down.”
Tom: “Producing music, getting quite high, reading books and absorbing things. Working on a big fantasy world, or something that leaves like a narrative legacy. I feel like arts a bit, ‘see it and it’s gone’, if you don’t look at it you’re not necessarily thinking about it. Whereas with music it’s your identity, it’s got way more depth to it. I’d like to make something like that, get to the next stage of creating when I’m like 40. Hopefully not be an alcoholic, live in a hot country… aka England after global warming.”
Lottie: “40 seems young to me. I’d want to be happy for sure. What would make me happy would be being successful of the back of my art and not having to work any other job. I would love by that point to have my own solo exhibition which would be an accumulation of all my pieces as a timeline. And, maybe spending more time on the beach? I want to have made so much money that I can buy my mum a house and she’s comfy.”
Feature image from work by Elliott Highmore.