This week we interview mixed media painter Minna George who graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2003. Minna lives and works in London.
1) Which art movement do you consider most influential on your practice?
My work has a lot to say about light, reflections, gestures and nature. I feel that as a painter I get very excited by the impressionists and the painterly quality of their work.I also relate a lot to the abstract expressionists way of thinking with large gestural paintings with complex colour mixing and subject matter.
My creative process is a 24/7, as I draw inspiration of the every day light, sights, seasons, emotions, reading material and music.
2) Where do you go and when to make your best art?
I work from my studio most of the time and my best pieces have been created when I have "caught the moment". When idea and inspiration have become one at the same time.
3) How do you describe your 'creative process'?
My creative process is a 24/7, as I draw inspiration of the every day light, sights, seasons, emotions, reading material and music. I work in my studio every day on a painting, idea or a sketch. I like to research different pigments, surfaces and materials I can experiment with while developing a concept. I like to be in control of my work from the canvas and stretcher built and weight, to the paint itself. I create my own pigment based paint to reach the optimal intensity of colour a technique I developed back in 2002. I work with the highest quality materials which brings me extra satisfaction and faith in the final result.
4) Which artist, living or deceased, is the greatest inspiration to you?
There are many artists I am inspired by, Monet,Gogan, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Cy Twombly, Fiona Rae, Georgia O'Keeffe, Kandinsky,Howard Hodgkin... to name a few.
5) If you weren't an artist, what would you do?
I am very inquisitive by nature I believe that if I wasn't an artist I would have been a photographer for something like the National Geographic or a research doctor specialist of some kind.
6) What do you listen to for inspiration?
I like atmospheric music when I paint. I love the work by the composers Hans Zimmer* and Ennio Morricone**.
*Hans Florian Zimmer is a German composer and record producer. Since the 1980s, he has composed music for over 150 films. His works include The Lion King, for which he won Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1994, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar.
** Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI is an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former trumpet player. He composes a wide range of music styles, making him one of the most versatile, experimental and influential composers of all time, working in any medium.
7) Which 3 artists would you collect work by if money was no object?
Rothko, Monet and Modigliani.
8) If your dream museum or collection owner came calling, which would it be?
9) What is your key piece of advice for artists embarking on a fine art or creative degree today?
To create what they enjoy and what challenges them not what is fashionable at the moment.
10) What is your favorite book of all time (ficton or non-fiction)?
Of all time - "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
11) If you could hang or place your artwork in one non traditional art setting, where would that be?
Probably the Acropolis amongst the ruins of history over looking the city
12) What was the biggest lesson your university course or time studying taught you?
To stick to my guns and never be afraid to ask a question.
13) And finally, if we were to fast forward 10 years, where would we find you?
I will still be an artist - tell me what you see and I'll tell you if its me!
