'Artists can get away with being a bit weird.'
Margaret Ingles is an Australian artist working from Brisbane, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Her realist paintings are informed by her studies, many travels and her passion for conservation, with focus on climate change. You may find her popping up on social media with some singing and dancing from time to time!
Where is your current studio? What would be your dream studio?
I have taken over half of the second floor of my house - the living area is where I paint and I have a room to store materials and canvases. It's a mess. I have a big chair next to my easel reserved for my long-haired dachshund called Molly, and for me when I need a break. My dream studio would be a separate building to the house, a kind of creative hub where my husband and I can create music at one end and I paint at the other. It would have plumbing and a sink and a fridge so I could spend the day there. It would have high ceilings, great light and large windows looking out over a beautiful garden and possibly a pool. Queensland gets hot!! I don't want much do I?
Do you prefer to work in silence or does certain music inspire you?
I like to put my ipod on shuffle but I have also made up quite a few lists called "artist singles" comprising my favourite songs and instrumentals that go for hours. I like to listen to podcasts and occasionally put the teli on for some background interviews, news, movies. Sometimes I just paint in silence. It's more for background than inspiration - I find it comforting although when my Cuban music goes on, energising! Once, with paintbrushes in hand, I danced like no one was watching. The man next door was watching.
Do you have a personal mantra or quote which serves to motivate you?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” - Mary Oliver
Describe an obstacle you have faced and how did you overcome it.
I had some strange things happen to a few paintings of mine as though someone had brushed past them and left very tiny scratches. I couldn't work out what was happening. It was once suggested to me to store any remnant oil paint tightly covered in the fridge. Bad idea if you live in the tropics. When you go to use it again, the warm air meets the cold and condenses on the surface. I couldn't see the tiny droplets so, as I was mixing my paint again, the water was combining with the oil. And when water heats, it wants to evaporate, and it was escaping through the paint. I came up with that about 3am one morning! I could be wrong, but I've had no problems since.
Nature versus nuture- do you believe you have inherited abilities from creative parents, do you have creative siblings? Can you identify environmental factors or influences which led to your choices or directions?
My mother was a singer and loved performing back in her native Scotland. She emigrated to Australia with her whole family in the early 1950's but tragically went deaf at 21. She had an amazing voice and always sang around the house and I'm sure my love of music and singing came from her. She and my aunt always encouraged me in all types of creative pursuits from ballet to acting, and drawing and painting. As a child, the walls of my bedroom were always plastered with pictures of animals especially horses and my family and the dog, or innumerable perspectives of my two feet and left hand. When I was 12 my mother bought me a book of famous paintings, and oil paints, brushes and medium. I would sit under a tree in the backyard and attempt to copy a still life of Cezanne, or a Van Gogh sky.
In my second last year of school (when I'd perfected my mother's signature for use on absent notes) I was given Irving Stone’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy” about the life of Michelangelo, and I skipped school for three days just to read it. It really brought the artistic process and the artist to life for me in such a visceral way and ignited a love of the Renaissance and Realism. I did a post grad in Renaissance art and architecture, and got the opportunity afterwards to live in Rome for 6 months which was an amazing experience.
Detail a moment which was the highlight for you, thus far.
I was cooking dinner in my little outside kitchen in Bangkok and received a call from the curator of a gallery in Singapore asking me to send him through four or five pieces to hang. With very little experience, I had written an introductory mail to the gallery the week before attaching my website, my scant CV and a couple of images, never thinking in a million years he'd get in touch. I was SO excited!
How does your work respond to social trends?
I've had an unconventional life. I lived in South and SE Asia for nearly 30 years due to my husband's work as a conservation scientist. During that time I worked primarily as an art teacher, editor and freelance writer until my art teaching morphed into my own art practice and I started exhibiting. I've never responded to social trends in either art or fashion - not only did I have very little access to what was going on in the world of art, it was also the days before internet, instagram and facebook! I therefore never developed a fascination with what's trending and to this day I walk my own path. That doesn't mean to say I am not influenced by other artists - I value originality and skill and am often inspired by what other artists are doing. I think it's an important part of growth. Their excellence helps motivate me.
What do you hope to convey through your work?
Beauty. Universality of experience. What I especially love is for people to connect with my pieces emotionally. That, to me, is the highest accolade.
Follow Margaret!
@marginglesart
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