REMI MCGANN
who is Remi?I don’t know myself really, if we’re talking the basics I was born in Liverpool, UK, I have red hair, blue eyes, the classic ginger stereotype covered in freckles, I am a 20 year old student studying theatre who paints whenever she can, anything deeper than that and I’m as in the dark as you.
ABOUT THE WORKI’m really drawn to individuality, the concept of human expression especially in women or more specifically femininity. I kept filling my sketchbooks with concepts for paintings all surrounding the theme of femininity and at first, I had no intention of executing them all but they kept pestering my mind until I finally gave in, it was cathartic for me in a way.
I myself am drawn to the strange things, the outcasts, misfits, if I am simply painting a face I prefer to add unique makeup and patterns to add life to it. I am never sure how to answer this question because I know many people would say realism but for me, whose roots lie in hyper realism, to blur the edges and experiment with colour makes me feel like I’m an expressionist, but it’s an enigma really. I sometimes view my subjects as if they are drowning in the background, they become one with the it. There is a point as an artist when you stop and say this is it, its finished, when you feel like you’ve completed whatever it is you wished to portray and for me I find halfway through a piece, when you can see hints of the face creeping through, I get this feeling and I want to stop, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but it’s always there, I love the idea of the incomplete piece, especially with realism, it brings something to it, as if I am making the viewer aware this is simply paint and paper.
inspirationI have a whole list of my favourite artists whose work I find so captivating, Egon Schiele, Nikoleta Sekulovic, Hope Gangloff… the list goes on and on but I am very creative centred, anything within the arts I find inspiration from whether it’s Mary Wigman’s dancing, or the films of Jacques Demy, if it is expressive and meaningful i have found a connection to it.
audience engagementEach piece brings something different to the table, with my paintings about individuality I want people to connect spiritually, to understand and admire their own consciousness and in this idea, have an awareness of other people’s consciousness. I feel sometimes in our world today we lack sympathy, compassion and most importantly empathy I want to change this, or at least try to. I want to promote the female energy, I love displaying women, in all their confidence, taking back their sexuality and embodying it, in today’s society women are pitted against each other as competition and made to feel insecure.
If I can make a woman admire or appreciate their own sex, it’s good enough for me.
connection to the workI always find my self staring into the eyes of the people I paint, I am a very strong believer that ‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’ and in it you can uncover an abundance of history, emotion and personality. It may simply be paper but somehow I feel as if I have brought my subjects to life, given them a face to recognise and examine, to form a connection with, all of my pieces have distinct auras around them, when I sell a piece I get a bittersweet feeling at the thought of probably never seeing them again.
I always find my self staring into the eyes of the people I paint, I am a very strong believer that ‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’ and in it you can uncover an abundance of history, emotion and personality. It may simply be paper but somehow I feel as if I have brought my subjects to life, given them a face to recognise and examine, to form a connection with, all of my pieces have distinct auras around them, when I sell a piece I get a bittersweet feeling at the thought of probably never seeing them again.
I always have the urge to paint, finding the right subject can be very time consuming and often the tricky part, but once I fully capture the idea in my mind my motivation floods in. I used to struggle with promoting myself, when I’m executing an idea and I have to stop to film and photograph I used to get very frustrated, questioning if it was worth the distraction? If I ever feel forced to do something my immediate reaction is to stop, now if I’m painting and I feel too immersed in the piece I won’t pull myself out of it and allow myself to stay in the zone, I film when I want to.
advice to beginner paintersExperiment! Finding yourself as an artist is so important and I understand the cliche but it’s true, it’s very easy to imitate and without even realising paint what you see, but I find this never lasts, as an artist the work has to come from some part of your very soul, it’s intimate, personal. To feel as though you are truly creating something from within is the real art. It took me a while to wrap my head around this idea, at the start I was a hyperrealist artist dipping in and out of expressionism I thought if I included every pore, every wrinkle it would be perfect but it never satisfied me, it was always too perfect, like an image, I felt like a photographer.
My old art teacher, Donalda (@donaldaoneillart) really helped me with this journey in becoming the artist I am today, she taught me to experiment, to analyse, I remember a class were we were blindfolded and I had to sketch a hand from memory, she would tell me to paint with my third eye as at the beginning I would be more focused on the picture itself as opposed to my painting, this is something I still keep in mind today. She creates some incredible landscape pieces I find fascinating, more people should see them.
My friend Faye (@fayerobertsart) who is also an artist, began with realism, we both felt as if that was were we were supposed to be, as we grew and evolved we went on completely different paths, she creates abstract pieces now exploring colour and nature, when I compare her work then and now it’s starkly different, it’s right for her you can see it in her work, it fits, as an artist you have to discover yourself before you can truly paint to the best of your abilities.
aspirationsI would love to work on a collection of paintings exploring animals and prints, possibly finding a gallery to exhibit them. I am also very interested in writing for theatre and film, I have two screenplays ready to go and I am in the process of writing a play about womanhood and the ageing process.
