Page 8 - Art First: Kate McCrickard: New Romantics

kate mccrickard in conversation with clare cooper

CC Kate, you have been quoted as saying that you can only conceive
of constructing an artwork through drawing from life. Throughout the
time I have spent with you in Paris and London, I have never seen you
without a sketchbook. Would you describe your art as essentially graphic?
In the opening quote in the essay, you speak of an ‘animated line drawn
in paint’.

KMcC I learnt to draw at Edinburgh College of Art. I am still learning to paint—
a medium with endless possibility that I hope, will occupy me for life.
That graphic strength that I brought from Scotland remains—we had
weekly life classes that proved invaluable—but it was also through
necessity that kept the drawing going before plunging into painting;
drawing can be done quickly, at home, around a job, around children;
possible in snatched moments, whereas painting needs slow time.
That drawn line remains the armature of my paintings, but I’m trying
to wrestle away from it to become more of a ‘painter’s painter’. It’s the old
conversa tion of disegno e colore and I dream of being in the Venetian
camp. I recognise the obvious impor tance of the graphic line, both drawn
and printed, in my favourite masters: Lautrec, Manet, Goya, Callot,
Beckmann, and Velazquez—of such genius that he drew directly onto
the canvas. Yes, I feel naked without a sketch book on hand in case I miss
a moment. These drawings, as you commented long ago, now provide
an invaluable database of form and memory.

CC Your compositions are busy and there are three reproduced here that
that I would love to ask you about in particular: Knight and the Devil at the
Bar, Table of Ghosts, and Feasting. Not only are they rich with art historical
references, but they also seem to touch on both family members, and
those unknown strangers whom you observe in your Parisian environs.
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