Stefanie Trow is a Manchester based painter whose exhibition ‘Eloquent Silence’ at The Lowry Hotel, Manchester, closes on the 23rd January. The show is a group of paintings made since the birth of her daughter and is an artistic development from the artist’s observation that the act of ‘looking up’ – as a baby does from the pram – is often neglected.  These paintings aim to evoke the oft-overlooked energy and excitement of nature; the growth of branches in every park in every town. The consideration of the growth of plant life invites us to consider our own growth and development, and in turn the paintings highlight the miracles of growth in all living organisms. As the show reaches its final days I wanted to discuss with Stefanie the ideas behind her practice.

Lisa: Can you explain further the idea behind amalgamating the human figure with shapes derived from plant life and trees?

Stefanie: I was inspired by my time on maternity leave, following the birth of my daughter in 2015. I spent many hours walking around my local park in an attempt to get her to sleep as many new parents do! Often whilst looking at her in her pram, seeing how vulnerable and fragile she was, I was struck by how she would gaze upwards towards the tree canopy and was fascinated with what she saw. I realized we hardly ever lie on our backs and have the opportunity to look up – and there the idea was triggered.

So I spent time looking and documenting what lies above us – my partner probably thought I had a new obsession with trees or staring at the clouds. I also looked at other artists that had referenced nature within their work, in particular William Morris.

I’ve never considered painting a classical landscape, but now I found an increasing desire to somehow incorporate it into my figurative painting. In doing this I felt it might reflect the dual perspectives that now exist of the world around me and the one my daughter experienced for all those hours in her pram.

Furthermore, I wanted to push myself and my work and challenge my own artistic development. By using the natural shapes derived from nature I could use these as a means to distort and ‘destroy’ the figure, adding a new perspective, whilst sowing a similarity between nature and human form. This felt a natural step on from my earlier portrait series.

Lisa: A number of your works are also symmetrical – why did you choose to compose these paintings in this way?

Stefanie: Studying nature led me onto looking at patterns entwined within, and one branch of this was symmetry, which is wide spread through our natural surroundings. I’ve always been interested in this, especially when I have painted the human face. Humans have bilateral or mirror symmetry as do leaves of plants so I wanted to create a painting that showed the similarity between us and nature in this regard. However, despite the paintings apparently being symmetrical, I purposely didn’t make them identical, as I wanted to show that within nature, there are imperfections and there is beauty in this. I also wanted to combine fractals and create a connection between the tree branches and our own the blood vessels, skeleton and veins.

Lisa: How do you go about designing the compositions for your paintings?

Stefanie: I genuinely don’t have a set way or routine when I start a new composition – neither do I necessarily have a well defined composition right from the off. I like to keep my processes fluid and open to change, which in some ways can be a blessing and other times a real hindrance. Sometimes I decide the size and shape of the canvas first, and then make the composition fit that. Other times I have a particular composition in mind and I work straight onto a flat pre-primed canvas stapled to the wall which does add to the flexibility and fluidity I have. By working directly onto a canvas that is no fixed size, or shape, I’m not at all restricted in my work. Once the painting is done, I get a stretcher made to the final size.

In this series of work, ‘Eloquent Silence’, I completed a handful of smaller paintings, or studies, just to work out if the compositions would work or not before spending weeks on the larger size I had in mind. I don’t tend to do many drawings before a painting therefore these have been useful. I have been known in the past to not finish a painting or start again, just because the composition didn’t feel quite right.

In fact, the paintings ‘Purple Graces’ and ‘Handful of Flowers’ actually started off compositionally very different. This is why it’s important for me to have several pieces on the go at once, to allow time for drying and reflection. Whilst also frustrating I feel it adds to the depth, texture and story of the painting so I do try to embrace this uncertainty.

Lisa: How do you think becoming a mother has affected your approach to painting?

It has made me focus more and work more efficiently. Time is so precious that I no longer agonize over if an idea will work, I just go with it. If it works, it works – great. If it doesn’t, I try again, whereas before motherhood, when I must had so much time on my hands, my own self-doubt would take over. Now I don’t have the time to indulge in any doubt and therefore it’s made me a much more confident in my approach, ideas and processes.

I also feel like motherhood has opened my eyes to a whole new way of life. Caring for someone else makes you question your own thoughts and feelings and what it is exactly you want to pass onto your child – the good and the bad. This has definitely influenced my art, as it’s made me re-evaluate what I want to say or reflect through my paintings. It has also given me more confidence and self-belief. Motherhood has been the most difficult thing I have done but it has added so many dimensions to both me as a person and to my art – all for the positive.

Lisa: Where did the title for your exhibition ‘Eloquent Silence’ come from?

The title ‘Eloquent Silence’ came from a book I was reading at the time I was painting this series, namely “The Book of Symbols” and the specific paragraph “Hands speak with eloquent silence: the clasped hands of lovers, the comforting hands on the shoulders of the grieving, the raised hands of prisoners of war” – Ami Ronnberg. I loved the sentiment of this and I felt it reflected the ideas I have about painting in general and the human form. Not everything has to be spoken out abruptly or spelt out to us – there are other ways we can have an impact and add power to what we are trying to say – painting being one method.

Lisa: Looking forward…how do you see your paintings developing now?

The million dollar question. I always find starting a new series as the most difficult part of what I do, probably because I have too many ideas. Once an idea becomes clearer though, I can start gathering imagery and build the concepts around this, then it flows very quickly.

I do see my work progressing onto a larger scale, using the same colour palette but becoming increasing complex compositionally. I’m planning on using a diverse range of images from my day-to-day life to create my own landscapes, collating them into a collage of sorts and then working these up into larger paintings.

Lisa: On a day-to-day basis, how do you manage motherhood with painting?

Stefanie: I’ll not lie – it’s hard!! Being a parent is! At the beginning, when my daughter Alicia was born, I didn’t have any time to paint. It was an anxious time in a way as I felt that was my creative career over. Midway through maternity leave I remember attending a Jenny Saville talk and was lucky enough to speak with her afterwards. She reassured me that as long as I did a little bit each day it would get easier. And I held onto this….and it did.

I started to keep a diary on my phone of ideas, whenever they struck me. Even voice recordings, so I could come back them when I was ready.

After Alicia’s first birthday I felt ready to return to painting and so needed a set time when I could work in the studio, which I moved from the city center to home to maximize the time available to me. Since then Alicia has been in nursery two and half days a week and I’m lucky that my family also care for her another day. These painting days are now so precious to me and every minute counts.

I feel I have now found a good balance. When not painting, I look after Alicia – days that I equally cherish – and we often spend a lot of time outdoors. I use these moments to take pictures as we walk along, or of things that trigger an initial idea. I also steal a few moments to reply to emails and social media during naps or a quiet moments (not that there’s many now she’s a toddler) and I still write a lot of my ideas down in my phone to work on later.

My partner is very supportive too, and we work together to each have a good balance of home life and work. Without this I couldn’t do what I do.

Lisa: How do you go about selecting the colors that you work with for each painting?

Stefanie: Over the last couple of years I’ve become increasingly interested in colour theory and believe it plays a vital role in painting and embodying energy and emotion.

In this series of work, I wanted to experiment with a totally new palette. One that was less obvious and allowed for a wider use of colours, and one that I saw rejected ‘current artistic trends’ within figurative paintings. I also wanted to build upon my existing colour handling.

I spent a great deal of time deciding which colours to use for each piece, which was often influenced by the subject or what I wanted to convey within the imagery.

I would often spend a full morning mixing the main colours. I would start off using simple colour wheel theories on complimentary, analogous and triadic colour schemes and begin to play around with different combinations. Until I reached a set of colours that would interact optically and resonated with the subject and me.

Lisa: What are you working on at the moment?

Stefanie: At the moment I’m working on a portrait from life of a close friend. She has just moved into the area and has offered to sit for me. It’s not often you have access to people who are willing to sit for you for a long length of time yet I do think it’s important to work from life whenever you have the opportunity. I always liked how Maggi Hambling referred to life drawing, making a comparison to a pianist doing the scales. I agree it keeps your drawing skills sharp – just drawing from photos you lose some of your skill as you’re just drawing from a flat surface. I wanted to do some work from life again as a refresher and back-to-basics challenge before I start my next series of paintings.

Lisa: Where online or in the flesh can we view more of your work?

Stefanie:  I currently have a solo exhibition “Eloquent Silence” open at The Lowry Hotel, Manchester with Comme Ca Art Gallery, which is open until the 23.01.18.

In London I exhibit with the Albemarle Gallery, London.

You can also see my work on my website www.stefanietrow.com and social media platforms;

Facebook: @stef.trow.art

Twitter@stef_trow_art

Instagram:@stef_trow_art.

Finally, and as something a bit different, I’ve embraced the wonder of video. You can see a short film about my work here. A couple of years ago I featured in a music video for Artist Baaba Maal ‘Gilli Men”, which can be seen here and shows me painting Baaba Maal himself – something I had to complete in 6 hours rather than 6 days or even weeks!

Header Image: ‘Self Portrait’ by Stefanie Trow, Oil on Canvas, 70 x 100cm, 2016