In Conversation: Ella Carty

How does your workspace setup influence the way you create?

It’s probably more a case of the way I create dictates how my studio is set up! I work with the canvas flat on a table or trestle legs as I often use liquid mediums like acrylic ink. Sometimes I lay the canvas on the floor too if it’s big, then I can pour, spatter and slide the pigments around with various implements.

What’s your ideal soundtrack whilst you work, or do you prefer silence? 

It depends what I’m doing. If I’m really focused on making a painting, I find I can’t really concentrate with music or any kind of sound on. But if I’m priming surfaces or doing something a bit less cerebral and a bit more functional, then I’ll listen to podcasts, radio or sometimes music. But more and more I enjoy silence.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned that changed how you approach your art?

I think you’ve got to really, really want to do it. It’s not always easy.

If you could spend a day in any artist’s studio (past or present), whose would it be?

Matisse!

What colour do you associate with your happiest memory? 

I do love the bright yellow of daffodils that emerge every year at the end of Winter, signifying the start of Spring.

What’s a creative risk you’re proud you took?

Giving up my job and starting again as a painter in my late 30’s.

How has your definition of “success” in art changed over time?

I think it’s forever changing, feelings of success come and go, I think that’s inevitable. The secret is to keep being playful and pushing your own boundaries and to please only yourself. It’s harder than it sounds.