Interview with Gayle Ebose here at Hackney Wick Underground
We had the pleasure of sitting down and interviewing artist Gayle Ebose.
Gayle had a solo show “Joy Always Comes in the Morning” at the Baths Hackney Wick. The gallery where we also host our workshops and shop is filled with gorgeous colourful portraits of smiling, concentrating, laughing and captivating faces. The exhibition is a culminating series of works made by Ebose over the last 3 years.
Our workshop coordinator Cecily sat down with Gayle to hear more about the works on show.
CLJ Hi Gayle, please can you briefly introduce yourself?
GE Hi, my name is Gayle Ebose and I’m a portrait painter. I mainly make work in London
CLJ Nice, and you’re an artist?
GE Yes, I mainly paint portraits, that’s my main medium of expression and communicating.
CLJ Tell me about what inspires you. What draws you to painting portraits?
GE The main things that inspire me I guess are people and connection, the way in which we’re able to share one another’s lives with each other. I like thinking about the light that people shine, I think that’s one thing that inspires me.
I’m inspired by how humanity can go through trials and tribulations but is still strong and they can endure. Humans are very robust. They can go through so many things and yet we still have this ability to just keep pressing on. I think that’s something that really inspires me and that I’d like to paint about. I like to see those anchorings particularly for people who are faith based. I like to see how they are anchored in their faith and that’s what helps sustain them through life.
“Humans are very robust.”
CLJ What I like in your paintings is how personal they feel to me, they feel like they are real people. Something that really stands out is your use of colour, please can you tell me a bit about this?
GE I’ve always used bold colours in my paintings. I’ve always started out with yellows. I really enjoy using yellows as an undertone for skin tone. When you’re mixing paints, particularly for melanin skin, I think yellow is a good undertone. But then it’s also pulled out as well into the background to illuminate the person not only within but also around them as well. That’s something that I enjoy playing around with, yellows and golds, and warmer tones to I guess enrich the person. When I’ve done research into yellow as well, I’ve seen it as warmth, light, but also wisdom, which I find interesting. You can be enlightened by yellow; it’s quite illuminating. Yeah, that’s what draws me to yellow and loads of other bold colours as well.
CLJ I also really associate the title about joy going with the colour yellow. The yellow is very joyous to me, when people think of happy colours they think of yellows.
GE And sunshine! Beaming! It could be orange that I could use as a background but there’s something about yellow that’s joyous. I try to incorporate that in as many portraits if not all of them. I think all of them have yellow in some way shape or form.
CLJ Yeah and I think that’s something that brings all the paintings together in the exhibition, a continuing factor between them all.
“This is the community that I maintained over the pandemic”
CLJ Who are all the people in the paintings?
GE Many of them are friends, family and people from church. This is the community that I maintained over the pandemic. All of the paintings, bar 2, are made during the pandemic, where we couldn’t actually see each other. Normally church is quite a good opportunity for fellowship and community and we didn’t have that during the pandemic so this was a way in which I could still have that community with my friends from church, through video calls and having that conversation and interaction virtually.
CLJ And I guess that leads us nicely to our last question:
At Hackney Wick Underground we are really interested in how artists use online platforms cos we are an online platform and community space where we bring people together as well; please can you tell us a bit about how you use online things in your practice and professional sense? Has this been affected by covid at all?
CLJ We’re interested in how artists are using online things like websites, Instagram or other platforms to promote themselves, get inspiration or connect with people. And, like you were saying, we’re interested in how this was affected by the pandemic when our communities were harder to access, and online things had even more importance for a lot of people. I was wondering if you could speak a bit about how the digital informs your practice or professional side of your work as well with connecting to people and promoting yourself.
GE I think all of these things have tied into each other. I have a broadcast journalism background so oftentimes I’m thinking visually how people are interacting with the art. I’ve been doing quite a few reels and video content etc. and I think social media is such a big thing now that it’s like a big community in and of itself and it’s something that you have to find a way to pour into, even though I’m the sort of person who will hibernate, I’m not the sort of person who is consistent on social media, I like the couple months off and a couple months on, which I don’t know how helpful that is for an artist.
CLJ Important to do what works for you though, that’s the most important thing.
GE Yeah, I think in terms of technology and using social media and using video calls for eg I think that’s actually transformed my methodology. So, the way I used to make work was through photography and voice notes and stuff and now it’s changed to video calls and social media. I guess it’s a happy medium, sometimes I enjoy social media and sometimes I don’t.
“live painting through video call”
CLJ With these paintings then did you take screenshots, or did you sketch them while they were on call?
GE The smaller ones were about 1 hour sessions. Literally live painting through video call. We were having a conversation; we were sharing each other’s pandemic experiences. Some lived by themselves, and some lived with their families, so their kids were running around. I wanted them to be as free and comfortable as possible in their own space just as I am in mine. Most of them were facetime video calls, and I didn’t need them to be still. I just wanted them to be as comfortable as possible and wear what they want and feel free. I did take some screenshots that I could refer to afterwards; but most times I was so exhausted after that hour that I barely touched them. I think the finished product was part of the process itself. So once the process was done, I was done.
CLJ It’s like that moment in time, it had to be done in that moment.
GE Yeah exactly. I rarely went back to work on the painting again.
CLJ I think that’s also what makes them feel like they are a moment in time and it’s like a moving person.
Thanks so much Gayle, I think that’s everything. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
GE I’m happy to be here and to exhibit in this space and for people to interact with the work, I’m grateful.
Gayle’s exhibition was on until the 31st of October, at The Baths, 80 Eastway, Hackney Wick.
Gayle is also running Sip and Paint workshops, the next one is Tuesday 13th Dec 7-9 pm. Book quickly as we’re nearly fully booked!
Interview written by Cecily Loveys Jervoise
Instagram: @cecilylj
