When did you first become interested in painting?
I started painting at the age of three in Africa where I was taught by my mother as she took the books from the English school and taught me herself as we were in the middle of a plantation, in the middle of the jungle, near the Equator. There was such colour and I used to paint the African ladies carrying pots on their heads in their robes. I won a competition when my mother sent one of these paintings back to England to enter. I think the prize was a large doll.
At secondary school back in England I became interested in the Beatles and their portraits won runners up in a competition on BBC and my portraits of them were used as a backdrop when they were interviewed during the programme, a pre runner to Top of the Pops called Ready Steady Go.
I was in trouble at school for this as the other pupils caused a riot when in the break time I sold the portraits I did every night instead of my homework. And I was encouraged to paint the Pope or President Kennedy, which I did, and they hung them in the school.
Did you always know you would become an artist or did you have other ideas?
I wanted to become a vet when I was at school, but then the painting of the portraits changed my mind and I went to Art College from school where I did 5 years training and also qualified as a teacher.
Are you a full time artists and if so, how do you manage your time?
I have always been a full time artist and although it’s a tough life I made a living from it and bought my house from the proceeds of selling originals and prints of varying subjects. After portraits, (I worked in the Public and Prep schools doing portraits, I revisited the land of my childhood to do a portrait of an African King and dignitaries, barristers, etc) I did places and developed a range of about 300 prints of villages, cottages, churches and popular places and then 55 London scenes which were hand coloured. I also ran my own little gallery for 8 years in Cookham where I sold paintings and prints, (I framed them myself) and I did a lot of pet portraits and commissions for the local celebs.
With regards to managing my time, I just paint or plan a painting all the time except for shopping, reading, eating and sleeping.
If I am out and about, I am mentally painting all the time and seeing compositions in everything. It is quite exhausting. You cannot switch it off.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I have always found inspiration in anything but now, as I live by the sea, I am constantly inspired by the beautiful beaches and the ever changing colours the weather makes on the sea.
How did your interest in seascapes develop?
Well, I was brought up as a toddler on the white tropical sands in East Africa and although I don’t actually remember it must be in my subconscious.
When I was selling in London, I developed a range of stylised seascapes inspired by the beautiful John Miller prints and they were very popular. When I moved to the Isle of Wight, I continued to do these for a while, selling them in the local gallery, but then real beaches took over and I did a range of watercolour local scenes which I published as postcards and which I still sell locally, 1000;s of them.
Then I developed from just painting scenes as they actually are like sitting in front and painting what you see as I found that if I did a painting as soon as I got in after a walk I could get more individuality from painting from memory. Now I’ve become more technically up to date (and still learning that).
I paint a memory or an idea on the iPad as soon as I get in to get the colours down and later I develop it into one of my large paintings. I do put more mental energy and time in them now and therefore they are worth higher prices. I am totally drained when I’ve just finished one of my latest paintings.
I put a lot of mental emotion in them and I think after years of painting experience this comes through in the recent paintings
You have a very distinctive style, have you always worked in this way?
A style just arrives after years of working. It is not something that I even think about. You just find after a painting that it looks like I’ve painted it.
Are you influenced by any famous artists, if so who are they?
I love the romantic idea behind Gauguin’s paintings, maybe because I’ve been abroad to the tropics myself, although a different reason and different part of the world.
Could you please describe the practical process you go through when making a painting?
I have mentioned before that I use iPad, memory and drawing and sometimes printed out iPad sketches which I stick on the wall to look at while I am painting. They develop in stages and layers.
Now I am older, I paint for a couple of hours, take a break and return to see it. You get so caught up in it that you don’t “see” it until you get away from it for a short while. I do put more into them than I used to. As I realised a short while ago when asked as a commission to repaint a triptych I did years ago but bigger and it wiped me out, but I was pleased with it in the end and so was the customer!
What does a typical day look like for you?
My day nowadays is get up and out, see what’s going on with the local yacht club and look across the water then go for nice coffee and a chat in the local hotel to get my brain going, then I come back, check my emails and then work on the computer, iPad or in the studio, painting. I do find a lot of time is taken up with the computer editing pics of paintings, ordering materials and sharing images on social media. In the afternoon I walk for up to an hour on the beach always getting inspired by the colours of the sea and lots of things going on on the sea: sailing, kite surfing, distant ships and people paddling in the sea.
In the evenings, I crash out and watch a bit of telly, but usually I am working on the iPad at the same time.
I am lucky to have had this experience which now gives me insight into people, places, and situations and I am able to find a creative interest in everything. More importantly, I really love the fact that so many people have enjoyed my work and that it lives on people’s walls and passed down in families. I often get emails from US from people who have inherited some of mine and are trying to find out about the image. They send them to me by email.
The self portrait I use on my Facebook artist page is a painting I did and got lost and the owners got it at an auction and contacted me and sent me that photo of it. I thought it had gone forever. Also one like that came from Australia which had been sold on and ended up there from a gallery!
I have always found that painting is very therapeutic and I like to create calming anti-stress images. I think that if they are therapeutic to me then they may be to others who contemplate them. I was once told by a buyer “Your paintings are soothing to the soul.” If I achieve this then I am happy.
View Sandra Francis’ gallery.
