Amanda Hall Interview

Cambridge Open Studios is a chance to enjoy art beyond the gallery. 200 artists take part in the Cambridge area and open their doors to anyone who would like to take a look. You can see a wider selection of their work (and buy it if you like!), see their methods first hand, or even just chat with the person behind the creations.

Cambridge Open Studios runs throughout July and to celebrate the event, Local Secrets is interviewing the top artists taking part throughout the month. This week we talk to Amanda Hall, illustrator.

Amanda Hall

A trip to Amanda's studio is like stepping inside one of her magical illustrations. Through the gate into her garden, then follow the leafy exotic plants until you stumble upon her ginger cat snoozing on a purple silk cushion: Voila! You've found her studio - a former garden shed reborn as a hive of artistic creativity.

Predominantly an illustrator of children's books, Amanda's images abound with magical creatures and distant lands. She layers watercolour ink with pencil crayon to create rich colours and intricate details; her images can be full of action yet enchant the eye with their design.

Amanda is inspired by cultures all over the world, and by their myths, legends and fairy tales. She makes minute changes to her colour pallet and style in order to embed a story in its heritage. Her illustrations whisk their viewer into whatever fantastic story she is visualising. Ghastly sea witches, adventurous elephants, even Inuit raven-boys - all leap into life at a flick of her wrist.

What work will you be exhibiting in Open Studios?

Some of the books I've illustrated will be on sale, as well as some limited edition giclée prints of my illustrations and original artwork. Also this year I'll have special prints and cards of my image for the Cambridge Summer Music Festival 2009.

The original painting for the Cambridge Summer Music Festival is now being exhibited at Cambridge Contemporary Art on Trinity Street and will be there throughout the Festival.

What space will you be opening to the public for Open Studios?

I turned the shed in my back garden into my studio when I moved here in 1995, and since then I've added a veranda to it. Both my studio and my garden will be open to visitors.

What are you currently working on?

Amongst other things I'm working on some collaborations with different children's writers at the moment. Gillian McClure (who wrote ‘Tom Finger') and I have produced a book proposal for one of Gillian's texts with a doggy theme, I'm working with Jamila Gavin (who wrote ‘Coram Boy') on a book about Indian myths for a UK publisher, and Chris Buckton (who wrote ‘Out In The Cold') and I are collaborating on a book about the Tree of Life.

I've worked on masses of picture books over the years and I've worked in crayon and watercolour inks for most of my career. Now I'd like to free up and work in something more permanent like oils. This will allow me to scale up my work slightly, and to work from dark to light which will be ideal for the new series of paintings I'm about to embark on based on Grimm's fairy tales.

How important is your working space to you? Could you work anywhere? Or if your studio was messy?

I've worked in this studio since 1995 when it really was just a shed. My working space is fantastically important to me; I can't even bring a table out onto the veranda to work. I'm very orderly with my space, but it's also nice to be able to make a mess.

What things must you have with you in order to work?

That depends on which stage of the work I'm at. The ideas bit needs silence, but then during the main stage of painting there's enough of my mind not in use to enjoy the radio.

I like having stuff around while I work. Sometimes I let Zeppo my cat in if he's lucky, but not always.

Did you always want to be an illustrator? What do you think made you become one?

My dad was an artist. He taught at Cambridge Art School, so I was surrounded by art.

He also did all the costume and set designs for the Cambridge Arts Theatre and was always building set designs on the kitchen table.

The theatrical thing was important to me. I've turned my garden into a kind of stage for my work and creating a book is like putting on a show. I research the costumes for my characters.

Has a particular artist inspired you?

My ideas come from a dreamlike, fantastical kind of place. I love the work of Stanley Spencer, Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington. Fairy tale is a very rich source of ideas; I love its timelessness. Of course I'm also inspired by different traditions, like the Indian illustrators. I like to steep myself in visual things when I'm starting a project.

What's your favourite thing to paint?

I particularly love drawing animals, archetypes and characters, and also mysterious architecture.

I also love any kind of decoration in my work, especially plants. Colour is fantastically important to me and it's always a challenge and always exciting. I'm constantly learning about it.

What's the most difficult thing you've ever had to paint?

An Ice Mountain, which was actually a challenge I set for myself as I wrote a children's picture book based on Inuit mythology. My technique is very
graphic. If you have an impressionistic style you can suggest things, but with mine it all has to be there.

If you weren't illustrating, what other medium would you like to try?

I like building things, so perhaps garden design or working with papier-mâché. If time was no object it would be nice to make large papier-mâché figures and objects.

Does living in Cambridge influences your work?

I'm from Cambridge. I moved away and came back, and it's very much part of my life. I can't quite separate myself out from it. There's a kind of watery quality to Cambridge which I love, something to do with being next to the fens maybe, and the fens are great - they have a special timelessness and spaciousness because they are still quite empty.

There are also a lot of creative people here. The art school is still here and there's a community of artists, small enough to be like a village.

Amanda Hall will be exhibiting on weekend 4 of Open Studios (Saturday 25th/Sunday 26th July).

Visit Amanda Hall's studio at The Shadowhouse, 71 Cromwell Road,
Cambridge, CB1 3EB.

Amanda will also be doing an in-store demonstration of how she works at Tindalls Art & Graphics, 15-23 King Street, Cambridge CB1 1LH, on Saturday 18th July from 10 am - 4 pm.

To find out more about Amanda Hall and her work visit www.amandahall-illustration.com.

To find out more about Cambridge Open Studios visit www.cambridgeopenstudios.co.uk