Artist in Focus - An interview with Jamie Gallagher

With bold heavy strokes, artist Jamie Gallagher creates pieces that are both considered and frenetic in their appearance. The layering of thick oils is fiercely impasto, and combined with Gallagher’s choice of palettes, the observer is delivered with a nuanced collection of profound colour and texture in every painting. 

This week we catch up with Jamie Gallagher and talk to him about his creative mindset, memorable clients, and painting during lockdown.

Your work is often provocative and unbridled, with a focus on the human form. What is it that inspires you to create?

I began painting as therapy, just a way to work out stuff that was in my subconscious and get it onto canvas. It was surprising as the paintings started to develop how much it helped me to understand how I perceived things and what effect they had had on me. So I’ve always seen a connection between my work and what’s going on inside the head, and not just mine — so I often watch interviews and read transcripts of conversations between psychologists and those affected by a range of conditions. I find the concept of societies ‘normality’ vs our own identity and inner psyche very compelling. 

Of the clients that you have had, who has made most of an impact on you?

I remember I was working on a very large piece called ‘Chemo’ which was painted on aluminium using a mixture of oils, acrylic light reactive inks and epoxy resin… it was a pretty challenging piece and an uncomfortable one to sit in-front of. Then a lady called me out of the blue and said she had seen the painting and wanted to buy it, she had just had a diagnosis and was about to begin Chemo herself — I explained it was quite a large and challenging painting, so invited her to the studio to see it and have a chat — we talked for a long time, and she bought a study of the work instead, which felt better for everyone I think. It was fascinating to have someone gravitate towards my work because of what was going on in their life, rather than just on the aesthetic — we keep in-touch, and I’m painting a portrait of a good friend of hers now as part of #portraitsfornhsheroes. 

With lockdown affecting every one of us at the moment, how has this unique concentration of both time and current events affected you and your art? 

It’s given me a lot more time, so I’ve worked more — taken to doing life drawing via zoom which means I have my whole studio kit to hand for life work, which is interesting, and I’m also working larger now. So I guess it’s helping me to develop, but generally I’ve found it more difficult to produce really good work, as I think I’ve lacked stimulus and struggled with a lot of personal turmoil. There are however, some really deep, visceral pieces that are coming together now, which I think are the result of the subliminal effect of the lockdown and everything I’ve taken in, I suppose it's taking time to process it. 

With both your careers as a designer and a painter both intrinsically linked to the world of art, what are your earliest memories of art in your life?

Im not sure about earliest, but I can remember some of the most impactful — I saw a painting called ’The Oncologists’ by Ken Currie at the Scottish Portrait Gallery and it literally stopped me in my tracks - it was a hugely emotive piece and I couldn’t move for about an hour, it was intense. Then when I first saw Jenny Saville’s work, the scale and the power of the figuration, I just couldn’t get over it. Lastly I think the most impactful on me was getting face to face with Bacon’s work - I seek it out wherever I travel, and spend as much time as I can up close with it… it kind of feels like getting the chance to have a drink with Jim Morrison, or a chat with Jimi Hendrix — the work is so personal to him, and seeing the way the work is made gets you really close to the artist. I guess that’s why I like my work to be seen in the flesh, I paint for the viewer to get in close, like 10 cm away and look at the strokes, the textures, mistakes… it’s that close relationship with the process and materials.

Can you let us know what you’re working on currently?

Finishing stuff… I have about twenty paintings in progress, I just need to finish some! 

Want to know more? Read our other articles about artist Jamie Gallagher here.