11 minute read
Ben Reader and Emma Rose Kennedy in conversation
EVERLASTING
Ben Reader and Emma Rose Kennedy were born, raised and educated 4,205 miles apart. Their formative years were ultimately completely different, Emma grew from the swamps of Miami and Ben slithered into the rocks of Penzance. But, despite their differences, after spending some time with them, I was fascinated to witness the intrinsic similarities that these two true artists hold.
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The art, understandably, is often the first impression fellow artists reveal to each other. It’s an impression that goes far beyond anything conversation can supply.
Emma describes herself as: “One of the 21st Century’s slowest painters”. Her meditative and meticulous practice explores moments of quiet and stillness- when the mind slips to daydream and reality gives way to something else. Drawing inspiration from myths, legends, and art history, her small works on aluminum act as two-way mirrors, quietly bridging the physical and dream worlds- even if only for a moment.
Ben’s work combines figurative portraiture and elements taken from both folklore and local history into a unique and instantly recognisable style. He specialises in the human form with painted portraits of a huge array of society: sweethearts, rogues and raconteurs. His self-portraits are intense as well as being full of character and humour.
It’s humour, human form and their need to live in the presence while glancing back at the past which seems to bind the two so strongly. In one word, they are romantics. Meeting on the coasts of Portugal, they spent the intense summer days painting and the mild nights galavanting across the cobbled streets. Up to mischief that isn’t suitable for print, meeting curious characters along the way and building up a repertoire of shared memories.
As certain as the rising and falling of the tides, the two close friends grew apart. Emma pursued her MA at Slade and Ben created a series of board games in various mediums as well as painting. However, the gulf stream is a constant and omnipotent current, the two were plucked from their separate waypoints and found themselves together once more. West Penwith was the location of their next chapter.
Just as in Portugal, the galavanting and mischief continued, but in a more subdued fashion. Perhaps it was lockdown, age creeping in or the fact that a bottle of wine was £7 in England up from £2 in Portugal! These all played their part, however the pair of them came to a more simple and elegant conclusion to their slight change in behaviour: the weather. West Penwith was a more soothing tempress, it has an endearing edge, a mysterious atmosphere and a more calming presence. The weather is ever changing in comparison to the constant heat of Portugal, they needed something to steady them, to keep their feet loosely planted to the ground.
As often is the case, Cornwall provided this environment, an environment for evolution and pioneering. Both artists took full advantage of this and used their obsession to create stunning works culminating in a career defining series of paintings. For the two artists to be contemporaneous with each other is an act of fate. An act of Cornwall. Watching new techniques and intuitive observations reveal themselves over the months was like watching a battle unfurl. The two fight side by side, with each new painting, each new technique an everlasting battle with an everlasting compatriot.
PHOTOGRAPHY: BECKY TYRRELL
Emma Rose-Kennedy: Hello me handsome!
Ben Reader: Hello my lovely! How are you?
EK: All the better now that I’m seeing you of course. I’ve been painting a Fairy on a belly today.
BR: Very nice! I’ve been painting a masterbating goblin!
EK: Ah, the usual! Haha
BR: Exactly! Ok. Enough of these pleasantries. Tell me exactly what your first memory of art was, and make sure it’s goodun!
EK: I think my first real heavy memory of art was when I was about seven and my family took me to a Tate retrospective of Dali. I remember that I hadn’t properly seen paintings up close before and seeing these were so incredibly detailed and luxurious. I remember wanting to touch them and that it seemed impossible that this was made. I couldn’t really understand it but I knew that it was something that I wanted to do. I just wanted to understand it and I thought the best way to understand it was to learn it myself. You?
BR: I think my first memory was when I was around three years old. My parents were worried about me because I wasn’t speaking english and so they took me to a specialist. When I was there they gave me a load of cards with pictures on them and they asked me what the pictures were. I managed to tell them in perfect english: things like an apple, dog, house etc. The last card was a baboon and when they showed me it, instead of saying baboon, I told them that was my dad! I think that was my first experience of art haha. Those were the early days. When drawings and paintings were just symbols for something else, for whatever you want to make out of it. Then as things moved on you get into painting right?
EK: Yeah, I didn’t start painting until I was relatively old, I did a lot of drawing when I was younger. But once I started painting I realised just how hard it was, but that kind of motivated me. When I realised how miserable it could be, it just made me want to carry on! No, but it is also the most divine pleasure- I love the eternal tug of war between ecstasy and misery. At the moment I’m painting on aluminium, which I really enjoy. It’s a different battle to when I used to paint on wood, which was a bit more forgiving. I’ve never really got into canvas, just because it is a bit too rough. Whereas, with aluminium, every single brush stroke is seen you have to be so careful and that’s what I appreciate.
BR: Yeah, I’ve recently moved from canvas to experimenting a bit with wood as well. It does depend on the size of the painting though. I like a bit of the cheeky gold leaf as well, it’s a bit of luster. A bit of gleam. A bit of treasure.
EK: I love a little bit of luxury in a painting- getting in some luscious
textures and over the top ornateness... a little baroque. I’m currently working on one of a friend called Cornelius and his luxurious cloak. Typically I work from references for some things, but what my mind comes up with to weave them together can get pretty over the top and bizarre.
BR: Yeah, I’m pretty into drawing from a real life reference sometimes, there was a point where I was absolutely obsessed with painting portraits and capturing something from the live model in front of me. There was one point though, when I realised and asked the question: what can we do as painters that you can’t do in any other practice? That’s where I got in to blurring the reality, you can introduce flying vegetables or whatever you want - you can start to create absolutely anything you desire.
EK: Yeah, and I think it always makes it more real when you paint it, it becomes a real memory or a real dream.
BR: I agree, I think it’s also something to do with the fact that a lot of artists do it as a sort of therapy, we use it to process things. That’s what I find whenever I’m doing a self portrait, I’m not doing it for
Ex-voto by Ben Reader
Genius of the meadow spring by Ben Reader
the public, I’m doing it for myself - to work through things and take control. I always feel much better after working on a self portrait, it’s an easy way to disperse any gremlins.
EK: Absolutely, it’s an obsession for me, something that I couldn’t live without. If I don’t paint, I get so angry, I truly start to lose contact with reality and myself. It’s so essential. It’s like the need to go outside, I have to take a walk every day, but obviously that’s made a lot easier considering where we’re living at the moment.
BR: Yeah, it’s crazy nice down here, I know we actually returned, like a lot of people, during lockdown. I feel like so many people went ‘home’ during lockdown and I’m so thankful this is where I’m from. We’ve got all the beautiful mythology, the stories and of course the people. The artists build on each other now, in the sense that they work together to bring each other and our art up.
EK: Yeah, I totally agree. Before I came to Cornwall and Penzance, I had no idea what it looked like. The only reference I had was your paintings that you produced. That’s really what drew me in. They don’t really show the coast or the seascapes or the rugged and beautiful landscapes, I get that is part of the appeal. But for me, it was the portraits you painted - that’s what appealed and intrigued me. It’s the naughtiness, the wicked and the comedic that is captured.
BR: It’s also just steeped with history down in Cornwall, there are so many stories that were created here which, for me, leads to new stories being easily uncovered. The other day, when I was at the pub, I was looking into a bit of history about it whilst there. It was built
around 1233, during the crusades and later on there were a lot of smugglers and smugglers’ passages. The pub in question also had a few priest holes in the attic, I quite liked that because little John was hiding all the Catholics down here. But these secrets, these stories just breeds curiosity and when there is curiosity there is mischief and when there is mischief, for me, there is art.
EK: Exactly, it’s a rabbit warren of secret allies, hiding spots and curious characters. That’s what we investigate and transfer it onto the canvas. That’s how I often start with my paintings.
BR: I’m curious about your process when it comes to creating a painting, how do you go about it?
EK: I usually begin by someone posing for me, or I take photos of them. After that I usually do some drawings. They don’t usually end up being used, but ones where I take the figure from. Afterwards, I’ll start painting the figure itself and try to puzzle together what is happening in the painting. I used to do drawings where I would know exactly what is happening in the painting, before I even started painting. It was so boring, especially as I am such a slow painter. Now I piece the painting together piece by piece as I go and the story unfolds to me as it appears on the canvas. I’m telling myself the story as I paint it and going on this epic journey. When it’s done it’s a complete surprise! It’s so fun. How about you?
BR: Similar to you. For me, a lot of it comes down to research. I’ll spend a lot of time reading, gathering photos, flowers if I’m painting flowers, clothes if I’m painting clothes and so on. For example, a recent painting: The Genius of the Meadow Spring, the research was split between the May Queen, Blodeu-
Forest of the thin by Emma Kennedy
wedd, the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes in Welsh mythology who was made of flowers and a film called Midsommar. By the way, Midsommar was horrendous but just stuck in my head because of the pallet! Those three are my main influences for this particular painting. I will then go about gathering flowers, taking pictures of it and composing them with the best looking colour matches. But when I really got the kick for this painting was when I was getting a friend to model for it, I got a yellow sack that I shone light on to which bounced off her face. Her face ended up reflecting this glorious golden light and I knew that was when I was finished.
EK: The bounce is bountiful! One thing I noticed when it came to our paintings, although they are very different and we paint at different speeds, one thing that’s common is our obsessive research. We’re constantly reading and constantly experimenting. A recent painting of mine included faeries and I spent days researching the fae and their tales. I got really into Victorian fairy tales as well - I spent weeks down that rabbit hole!
BR: I know exactly what you mean, and it’s worth saying that the painting is sometimes not what you see, it’s the conversation that came before that, the research and the learning that builds on the painting. You bring those ideas to life. Ideas that never had a life before. Words that never had pictures.
@emmarosekennedy
@readerben
www.benreaderart.com
