In Conversation: Saul Cathcart

There’s often a moment when continuing could transform a painting or negatively impact what is already working. How do you decide whether to take that risk?

The desire to find something new.

This urge to get the ultimate sense of satisfaction is the lure. Sometimes it’s worth risking it because the feeling of holding back is not a nice one.

It’s usually only when I’ve painted a few recent pieces that I think are good that I have the confidence to do so, though. I equally hate the feeling of knowing you had something good and have lost it forever.

But that’s the game, isn’t it? That’s the skill. That’s the real thing you learn, and you learn it only through your mistakes.

You encourage students to work on several paintings at once. How do you find that this helps in your practice?

It helps you be freer. You can push some pieces more than others and leave something you might be unsure about or that is telling you to stop. You can experiment and get a better feel for what direction individual paintings want to go by taking the pressure off and not feeling like one painting has to have it all.

Your course is called Finding Your Landscape. What helps someone move from painting the view in front of them to creating a landscape that feels personal to them?

By not getting too transfixed with what they can and can’t do. You have to let go of what you want the outcome to be and focus on the task at hand – the work.

You can only find your true, unique self/style through practice and experimentation. You can’t force it.

But it’s actually very simple because it comes out naturally through the process of layering, learning and editing. You then start to understand what it is you actually like through discovering what you don’t. Sometimes we can trick ourselves into thinking we know what we want and find that it’s actually something completely different, or even something we had all along.

Quickfire with Saul

What is always on your studio playlist? Or do you prefer quiet?

I actually prefer quiet. I used to listen to stuff, but the importance of making the work demanded more of my focus.

If I were to listen to something while creating, it would probably be some ’90s favourites like Pearl Jam or Dave Matthews Band.

I do have a guitar in my studio and often play my own stuff if I’m procrastinating! Probably a bit too much.

If I’m doing practical stuff like framing or priming canvas, I’ll put on Radio 4.

What is the best piece of advice you have received during your career?

I really don’t know! I feel like I’ve pretty much had to find everything out myself. My degree was very much focused on that, which was good in a way because it taught me to be self-sufficient.

But I was once gifted a weekend printing workshop with the Devon-based artist Michael Honner, and something he said really stuck with me. It was about performing an action in art; he told us to “Think, pause, commit.”

This beautifully sums up my own approach to creating. It’s not just blind intuition; there is so much contemplation involved, yet you will never progress if you don’t trust yourself and make decisions. This quick reminder really helps me if I’m stuck.

Which artist, past or present, would you most like to share a studio with for a day?

I think Damien Hirst. I love how confident he is. He believes in what he is doing and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.