Gill Bustamante

 

In conversation with Humph Hack - Curator

 

Gill has been on this gallery for several years and is one of our best sellers. The richness of her paintings has always impressed me, so it was a delight to be able to offer her a Featured Artist slot.

 

I asked her about her earliest memories of making art.

“I started painting as soon as I discovered paint (about 2 years old) and then when I was given my first set of felt pens there was no stopping me (though my parents did try once I started painting their blankets)”

Lots of people enjoy art at school but most don’t continue much after they leave. Gill told me, “I did a foundation course at Chelsea and a Fine Art degree at Brighton”.

Since then, she has evolved her own style through exploration and experimentation. Like many people who complete a full-time course - “I find this more fun than being tutored.”

Her art is almost entirely landscape inspired; a very standard inspiration for artists throughout time but most people love them too - rural landscapes, the sea, ancient places, rivers, hills, animals, nature, birds.

“I particularly respond to places that have history as they often have spiritual atmospheres and energies to them”

    

Gill sometimes does fast sketches, but only to work out the composition.

“I have developed a painting style that relies heavily on memory and so my paintings are quite fluid and flexible in their design and content”.

The resulting works are semi abstract, atmospheric landscapes with art nouveau elements. They are evocative of things seen, places visited and experiences enjoyed.

She works in oils on canvas.

“I loved oil paint as soon as I started using it (1970's paint by numbers sets that my granny used to buy me). There is a delicious vibrancy and messiness to oils and it is very versatile. I like that I can paint over my disasters and still make something good from them. It is not so easy to do that with other mediums”. 

As regards the future Gill hopes to: “find new landscapes to explore and new paintings to make as a result”.

She would love to live in a barn where she could paint, teach and exhibit art whenever she wished to. That will require lots of cash, so for the moment it remains a dream.

However, her advice to other artists is…… “Do what you love and keep making art regardless of who likes it or not. An awful lot of 'judging' goes on in this world - people telling you what you should and shouldn't do. Do what thrills you and keep getting better at it”. 

August 2024

 

Featured works

 Click here to see Gill's other works  See Other Featured Artists