David Boardman BA (Hons) Interview
(cont.)
Profile
Biography
Gallery
Copyright of images belongs to the Artist.
Copyright of interview belongs to Ovenden
Contemporary (Art Promotions) Limited. Any
un-authorised use is strictly prohibited. All
rights are reserved.
(c) 2006 Ovenden Contemporary (Art Promotions)
Limited
continued.....
OC: You mentioned previously your illustration
experience. In fact, you were a reasonably
successful published Illustrator. Tell us a
little more about how that came
about.
DB: Well...after leaving university, I thought that I would probably pursue a career in illustration and didn't, at that point, have any plans to go into fine art painting. My road into publishing began when a friend of mine asked me to illustrate a book that she was designing. After the publisher saw the finished artwork, the offers started to come in for more work, and I eventually became one of their "in-house" illustrators! Although I enjoyed the work, by this time I had started to envision the sort of work I would like to do if the chance came along. It was to be several years before I could begin to commit these ideas to canvas though!!
OC: So you knew when you started this activity that it was only going to be a temporary thing? Did this work influence your later activities as a painter in any way?
DB: I enjoyed the work and probably would have continued in that vein indefintely had my musical interests not got in the way! I suppose you learn something from each experience to a greater or lesser degree, but I don't think my illustration work directly influenced my later paintings...perhaps it gave me a solid grounding in the use of acrylics, which I'd not used a lot before that time, but stylisticly it was quite different.
OC: Let's move on to your musical interests. You are quite the renaissance man David, aren't you? What you describe as 'musical interests' is actually a full-blown music industry career, running simultaneously with your art career. In fact, you were a member of a band not so long ago that had a record deal and several plays on Radio 1. Tell us what happened?
DB: Well, I have always had two great passions, one being art and the other being music, so from an early age, I've never really wanted to do anything else with my life! There's not really a contest between the two! I had been playing the guitar since I was 8 years old but it was not until I went to University that I put together my first serious band. This was "roller", which I formed with a friend who was also an illustrator. We spent a few years doing the so called "toilet" circuit before attracting some management interest and it kind of took off from there. We signed to a small indie label and released a couple of albums, also touring extensively in North America and the uk, but after 2 or 3 years of this, of which I have many fond memories(!), we decided that it had gone as far as it could and we were really keen to do other things.
In my case, I was getting increasing amounts of commissioned artwork, and it was getting to the stage when a decision had to be made to do one or the other.
After a couple of years away from music, I've recently made some tentative steps back into the industry, but it's currently having to take a back seat to my painting!!
OC: It sounds like an exciting time David! Is it easy to move from one career to the other? There must be different priorities and expectations. How do you handle that?
DB: I think with hindsight, it was easy because it had just come to the end of it's natural life, and I just wanted to do other things...and particaularly get back to painting. When you're in a band, the rest of your life goes on hold because it's so demanding, and I just wasn't prepared to do that anymore. I guess the main priority when I gave up the band was to make some money!!!! ....It was nice to have different, more realistic goals, you could say....I was lucky that I started selling work pretty much straight away, so some sort of tangible success came fairly quickly, which was a great boost when I was just starting out!
OC: Yes, you are lucky enough to have received a steady stream of commission work almost immediately as soon as you came back to painting. It must be a comfort to know that what you are working on at any given time has already sold. Or is that part of the excitement of painting?
DB: Yes, as I'm sure all artists will appreciate, it is a comfort to know that you are going to get paid for the hours of work you put in! Also, with a background like mine - in illustration - I'm used to being presented with a brief, so I tend to see it as a challenge, rather than a restrictive thing. However, for your artistic development, I think you need a balance of both, if you are to explore your potential and try new things...I guess that's where the excitement comes in!
OC: You have an exhibition at the prestigious Biscuit Factory in Newcastle lined up for next year. That must be exciting for you. Are there any other ambitions you would like to fulfill?
DB: Yeah, I'm very pleased to have a place in their spring show, especially so, as I grew up in the North East and my family still lives there, it's somewhere that, although I live in Cheshire, I still consider "home". It will be fantastic exposure and I'm looking forward to having my work seen by a much wider audience...if they like it that is!! As for other ambitions, well I feel like I'm just starting on this particular road and there's so many things I'd like to achieve....I think currently my goals are simply to have my work seen, and hopefully appreciated by as many people as possible...that aside, my ambitions are mainly artistic...I just want to create the best work I can. I am my harshest critic, and set very high standards for myself, so it's a constant battle in my work to match those standards!
DB: Well...after leaving university, I thought that I would probably pursue a career in illustration and didn't, at that point, have any plans to go into fine art painting. My road into publishing began when a friend of mine asked me to illustrate a book that she was designing. After the publisher saw the finished artwork, the offers started to come in for more work, and I eventually became one of their "in-house" illustrators! Although I enjoyed the work, by this time I had started to envision the sort of work I would like to do if the chance came along. It was to be several years before I could begin to commit these ideas to canvas though!!
OC: So you knew when you started this activity that it was only going to be a temporary thing? Did this work influence your later activities as a painter in any way?
DB: I enjoyed the work and probably would have continued in that vein indefintely had my musical interests not got in the way! I suppose you learn something from each experience to a greater or lesser degree, but I don't think my illustration work directly influenced my later paintings...perhaps it gave me a solid grounding in the use of acrylics, which I'd not used a lot before that time, but stylisticly it was quite different.
OC: Let's move on to your musical interests. You are quite the renaissance man David, aren't you? What you describe as 'musical interests' is actually a full-blown music industry career, running simultaneously with your art career. In fact, you were a member of a band not so long ago that had a record deal and several plays on Radio 1. Tell us what happened?
DB: Well, I have always had two great passions, one being art and the other being music, so from an early age, I've never really wanted to do anything else with my life! There's not really a contest between the two! I had been playing the guitar since I was 8 years old but it was not until I went to University that I put together my first serious band. This was "roller", which I formed with a friend who was also an illustrator. We spent a few years doing the so called "toilet" circuit before attracting some management interest and it kind of took off from there. We signed to a small indie label and released a couple of albums, also touring extensively in North America and the uk, but after 2 or 3 years of this, of which I have many fond memories(!), we decided that it had gone as far as it could and we were really keen to do other things.
In my case, I was getting increasing amounts of commissioned artwork, and it was getting to the stage when a decision had to be made to do one or the other.
After a couple of years away from music, I've recently made some tentative steps back into the industry, but it's currently having to take a back seat to my painting!!
OC: It sounds like an exciting time David! Is it easy to move from one career to the other? There must be different priorities and expectations. How do you handle that?
DB: I think with hindsight, it was easy because it had just come to the end of it's natural life, and I just wanted to do other things...and particaularly get back to painting. When you're in a band, the rest of your life goes on hold because it's so demanding, and I just wasn't prepared to do that anymore. I guess the main priority when I gave up the band was to make some money!!!! ....It was nice to have different, more realistic goals, you could say....I was lucky that I started selling work pretty much straight away, so some sort of tangible success came fairly quickly, which was a great boost when I was just starting out!
OC: Yes, you are lucky enough to have received a steady stream of commission work almost immediately as soon as you came back to painting. It must be a comfort to know that what you are working on at any given time has already sold. Or is that part of the excitement of painting?
DB: Yes, as I'm sure all artists will appreciate, it is a comfort to know that you are going to get paid for the hours of work you put in! Also, with a background like mine - in illustration - I'm used to being presented with a brief, so I tend to see it as a challenge, rather than a restrictive thing. However, for your artistic development, I think you need a balance of both, if you are to explore your potential and try new things...I guess that's where the excitement comes in!
OC: You have an exhibition at the prestigious Biscuit Factory in Newcastle lined up for next year. That must be exciting for you. Are there any other ambitions you would like to fulfill?
DB: Yeah, I'm very pleased to have a place in their spring show, especially so, as I grew up in the North East and my family still lives there, it's somewhere that, although I live in Cheshire, I still consider "home". It will be fantastic exposure and I'm looking forward to having my work seen by a much wider audience...if they like it that is!! As for other ambitions, well I feel like I'm just starting on this particular road and there's so many things I'd like to achieve....I think currently my goals are simply to have my work seen, and hopefully appreciated by as many people as possible...that aside, my ambitions are mainly artistic...I just want to create the best work I can. I am my harshest critic, and set very high standards for myself, so it's a constant battle in my work to match those standards!
