Betsey Kilpatrick

Hunted Projects: You’ve recently moved to Edinburgh from England. What changes are you looking forward to? Are there any ways you expect your practice to shift or develop in this new environment?

Betsey Kilpatrick: Since leaving London after a long time there, the move up to Edinburgh has changed my work in a positive way. Having a slower, calmer pace of life in Scotland has definitely made me feel more relaxed and confident to allow the work just to happen without feeling stressed trying to find time to squeeze in making work. I feel my work can just evolve as it needs to in its own way.

HP: Can you share a little bit about what a day in your studio in Edinburgh might look like for you?

BK: I very much work “in the moment” and do what I feel like doing on that day. I sometimes like to use a small sketch sized work on paper where I can work very fast using charcoal and watercolour. The larger works take a lot more energy as I am using my whole body. I like to switch from phases of making a lot of smaller scale work then to making larger scale pieces.

HP: You’ve mentioned that you create your works by applying paint to the back of the canvas and displaying the front. When did you first begin experimenting with this approach? What inspired you to pursue it?

BK: It happened by accident while experimenting during my master’s degree. I started experimenting with different surfaces to paint on using silk, linens and canvas without primer to see what effects I would get, trying to keep the fluidness of watercolour. I found this particular linen which allowed the paint to seep through it in such an inspiring way, that it has become a part of my practice using the surface to be entwined with the process. It has also allowed my practice to evolve more intuitively as I am less attached to the finished outcome while painting on the reverse as I don't really know how the painting is going to look. It is always a surprise which is exciting for me.

HP: You talk a lot about the relationship between the conscious and subconscious. Do you think this practice of hiding and then revealing the work to yourself engages with different levels of conscious and subconscious creation?

BK: I really like the idea of that. It is something that is difficult to verbally describe but I do feel that art can be an outlet that can explore both our conscious and subconscious aspects.

HP: Your paintings engage with natural phenomenon, like light, currents, and whirlpools. How do you consider energy and the environment in your work?

BK: Yes, I do like to consider the idea that the energy of nature and consciousness are related to the act of painting. It is unpredictable and can be chaotic in a strange yet exhilarating way.

HP: Your works, particularly in this exhibition, frequently depict static images of energy in motion. How do you capture and communicate that experience formally?

BK: I have always been fascinated by the paradoxes of motion that can occur in painting, especially by the influence of Eastern Chinese ink painting where there is an age-old aliveness to the paintings that words cannot comprehend; this unique harmony and balance between motion and stillness is so interesting to me.

HP: Are there any specific works or periods of Eastern Chinese ink painting that are inspiring you at present?

BK: A favourite painting of mine is by a Japanese Buddhist painter who travelled to China and learnt from the great masters in the 15th century is Sesshu Toyo, and his painting called ‘Haboku Sansui' landscape. To me the painting is timeless and looks so alive.

HP: Looking back to your earlier work - which frequently operated within a single-colour scheme in monochrome compositions - what sparked your departure to these more vibrant, multicolor works you are now exhibiting?

BK: I have throughout my painting journey gone through periods of dark muted colours then switched to more vibrant colours. I think more recently colour has become an interesting subject to my practice as I feel I am representing a more real version of nature (or what I would like to imagine it is). It is that which we cannot actually see with our own eyes but connects to the essence of life on a deeper level, a merging of the conscious and subconscious aspects of nature and ourselves.

HP: Your paintings occupy an expansive portion of the canvas, giving the sense of extending past or filling them almost entirely. How do you consider scale in your compositions, particularly in relation to the viewer’s experience of the work?

BK: I do feel that my larger works have more of an immersive quality in that the viewer can imagine them expanding out beyond the surrounding space and therefore feel that they are entwined within the work.

I feel that my larger works give a completely different experience than my smaller works that are a lot more intimate. The larger works represent the grandness of contemplating nature and how small the viewer is in comparison.

HP: The name of your exhibition, Ad Infinitum, or “to infinity,” engages with this concept of ongoing space. Are there any other ways you feel the concept is relevant to your work or the exhibition?

BK:  I feel that Ad Infinitum to me can also relate to the core essence of our being that we are limitless and connected to the eternal.