This week I had a catch-up with the exciting new Geordie artist who the gallery has invested in! Let me introduce you to the oil on canvas painter, Kevin Day!
As soon as I saw his painting ‘Blue City’ I knew it was one the gallery had to invest in. How could we not?? The depth and dynamic within this piece meant I couldn’t look away. With a single character being just off-centre as well as a seemingly endless depth to the painting, all being combined with vibrant blues and flashes of fiery reds, I couldn’t help looking into the piece and seeing the anonymity of life in a city. This anonymity gives the freedom to be who you want to be, to exist peacefully with seemingly never-ending opportunities… And yet in this painting the figure is alone, and searching into the distance, searching for something, whatever it is they’re searching for being unclear. Will they find it?
When asked if this analysis had anything to do with the piece, Kevin said: “Well, like lots of artists I didn’t have the aim to create something specific, so you get out of it what you read into it sort of thing – but yeah, there’s something powerful about just one guy walking down a busy street.”
After having a chat with Day, it gave me even more insight into the creation of his piece. Starting with the journey of becoming an artist.
_*“[Art is] something I’ve always done from being a kid. I used to sketch and mess about a lot. It’s just something I’ve always done. I can remember my uncle told us a few tricks when I was about four or five, like how to draw smoke coming out of a pan. Ever since then I’ve doodled and just ended up really getting into it.”
“My mum bought me an oil painting set when I was about 10. Which is quite young for a kid, but I just loved them. There was something about the texture, and the smell. You don’t get that from other mediums.
At the time I thought I was very grown-up. It felt nice. All the other kids were using crayons or oil pastel and I was just there like “I really like this.” It felt like it put me on a different level.
Although, looking back, I probably shouldn’t have been using them at that age because they weren’t the safest, because of the turpentine and stuff like that.”*_
Usually Kevin works in real time, often going out into Newcastle, painting in the rain. When I questioned if this had any effect on the paintings he said “The water just runs off the oil so it’s not as bad as you think! Unless it’s really heavy then it indents the oil, but it actually adds a nice effect. Sometimes you can tell when it’s been raining on a painting.”
When asked about his first ever art exhibition he said that “It was in a little gallery in Annick back in 2008. It was my first ever professional exhibition after I became a full-time artist. It went really well, I sold about 18 paintings. I was in shock! That was maybe the first time I sold that much. I got a bit of exposure on local TV, which really encouraged me to carry on doing what I was doing.
My older work wasn’t traditional, it was more operesque. Locals weren’t used to seeing that sort of thing, they’re more used to the local scenery and landscapes. I was inspired by a few other American artists such as Jeremy Lipkin and people like that who were doing figures. A lot of American artists do that sort of thing, but you don’t see that as much in [the UK].”
Kevin has been inspired by so many different people and films throughout his career. One of the main people was Edward Hopper, an American realist painter and printmaker, who is widely known for his oil paintings. He is also very drawn to the sci-fi art style in movies, often only realising their influence on him once his pieces have been created.
When I asked Kevin what it was in Hopper’s paintings that he was drawn to, he said “When I started to become a professional artist – if I could call myself that at the start – I was drawn to some of the scenes Hopper created that had the viewer looking through windows, with one person in the scene. I think a lot of people found him to be a strong influence.
Blade Runner – the sci-fi film – was also a big influence on me as a kid, more than I think I realised. I didn’t realise until years later that the movie was inspired by one of Hopper’s paintings. So, it’s all relative, I’m just really drawn to his work!”
When I asked Kevin about his City collection – which I have to say, is my personal favourite – he was open and excited to tell me all about how it was created! These pieces were in fact made during the lockdown and were painted from a reference, something the artist usually doesn’t do, but I will let him explain it better than I ever could!
“The basis of the New York / Tokyo City Collection came from lockdown. When we were all locked up and couldn’t go out. I couldn’t go out painting, and I couldn’t use a reference from other places.
I started watching videos on YouTube. In these videos, people were doing walking tours of cities. Hours went by and I couldn’t stop watching them. In them, the guy was walking around Tokyo and New York, but because of the lockdown, the streets were all empty. “
He said that “There was something really powerful about the empty streets and I felt inspired and influenced to do a selection of paintings. There was something quite muggy, and scary, yet gorgeous about it all. There was only ever one or two figures in it. It was more evocative, I think than a landscape. A city with only one person in it, there’s something a lot more powerful about it! About one person being in a massive place where there are meant to be loads of people. I was just drawn to that and trying to communicate that with people. I added a few figures in. In a couple of pieces, they were me! As I didn’t have a model, I was the only person I could use.”
While I had the chance to talk to Kevin, I wanted to know why he chose the colour pallet that he did, the vibrant blues, and pops of powerful reds, over a muggy city, really add depth to the painting, both literally and analytically.
When I asked him about his colour palette he said “I think it’s probably because subliminally I’ve picked that up from sci-fi films, they have that sort of palette. Like Rémy Boudet, the director of Micro Man, a lot of his films are like that. And ‘Collateral’ with Tom Cruise, that’s a great film for these shots. A lot of scenes in that are blue streets with flashes of colour. It just creates a total mood. I also just liked that neon unnatural blue that you get in cities.”
When looking at the piece it’s a perfect depiction of what it felt like to live in a city during the lockdown. One character alone, by a busy road, life going by, the world kept turning, and yet also stopped.
Kevin said that the style he used in these paintings reminded him of when he first started as an artist. “This collection is different to my other work. My other work could be considered a little more traditional, but I really enjoy doing these pieces. They felt like more of an escape, I felt less limited, almost like a free for all. I could change the city, change the way things look and exaggerate it how I like.”
“Quite a lot of the time (if it’s a studio painting, like what the New York ones were) I’ll try and exaggerate probably more and more than what it would be in real life and make the connections more. I made the rain look like a river running down the street. It creates and adds running emotion when you put it in paintings. When the reflections are added, it takes the piece to a different place.”
When asked if oil on canvas was the only material he liked to work with he mentioned that he does quite a lot of sketching on his iPad. He stated that “It’s handy and a lot cleaner than my usual mediums.” He also mentioned, “When I’ve been asked to do a commission, I have also worked with charcoal sketches which have done well.”
Kevin’s got some very exciting things happening soon! With a new solo exhibition happening from the 25th – 30th of August 2022 at the Bottle Works Gallery in New Castle, he is certainly keeping busy!
_*“My solo exhibition is in a little place in Newcastle called Ouseburn. It’s become quite a trendy place to be. There are a few pop-up galleries around there and I saw this gallery has only been open a couple of months. I thought it was the perfect space to have an exhibition and to see what happens!
I’m better at putting on my own shows. If it’s me putting on the show I can take risks with the work I put up. I think people, especially around that area, prefer things that are a bit trendier, so I think I will display more of the New York / Tokyo paintings. I think they’ll be more interested in that side of things, instead of the more traditional paintings that I do.”
After I finished talking with Kevin about his work, we discussed a possible collaboration at the gallery. We came to the conclusion that he would be interested in doing a demonstration at the gallery with a few of his chosen pieces on display. This will likely be after August when his solo exhibition is finished. We are already so excited about this possible collaboration!
A big thank you to Kevin Day for chatting with me and giving us all an insight into the gorgeous artworks from his City Collection. Check out our website to see his work which we have up! We have originals AND prints so the prices vary. These are absolutely statement pieces which the viewer can get totally lost and drawn into. The vibrant colours throughout complement the scene perfectly and draw you into an empty, yet somehow completely filled city that seems full of opportunity and promise, you’ve just got to look, you’ve got to find it.
