Studio Series: Andrew Foulds

Third in a new series, we are granted an exclusive and rare insight into the work spaces of some of the region’s most celebrated and emerging talents. This week we visit painter Andrew Foulds at The Royal Standard Studios…

Please describe your space. I have a studio space in The Royal Standard, it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and it feels hard like wood and brick.  Recently I seem to have been building more walls and storage space around myself and its beginning to feel more like a cave than a studio.

What work do you do here? Painting, sometimes I paint on canvas, quite often I paint on whatever happens to be close to hand, cardboard, wooden paneling, polystyrene packaging etc.  I also make things, sculptural items which form a relationship with the paintings, they either house the paintings in some way or mirror the subject and forms inherent in the paintings.

How many hours a week do you spend here? It varies due to other work commitments, sometimes I’m really busy earning money, other times I’m busy with the responsibilities of being a director here at The Royal Standard, but generally I’m in the studio every other moment I have free.

What helps you work? The green-eyed devil of jealousy.

Describe your 3 favourite possessions in the studio. I have a little rock which has a beautiful repeating pattern running through it, the pattern is so precise it doesn’t seem possible that it could be natural but it is. I also have a sculptural relief I made which hangs on my wall, it is a bit of a take on a large Joseph Beuys piece called Stag caught in a lightning storm, if it had a name I might call it A Stag and a lightning storm caught on TV but it doesn’t so it isn’t.  I’m not sure I would describe it as an artwork, but I like to look at it and as it sits there it tends to feed into other things I work on. Finally, I would have to include a mini metal elephant which stays on a shelf in my studio. Whenever I pick it up, I’m always surprised how heavy it is, I guess I like it just for that reason.

If your studio could speak, what would it say? Clean me.

If there was one important piece of advice you could share with other artists, what would that be? Listen to others: but listen to yourself most of all.  And don’t ignore the importance of play.

www.the-royal-standard.com/artists/andrew-foulds