WN7

Joe is a self-taught oil painter and portrait artist who works predominantly from life. Joe invited us to visit his new studio on Floor 5 of Spinners Mill. Read on to find out about Joe’s practice, life at Spinners Mill and his thoughts on being a Wigan artist.

CY: How did you start your art journey? 

JKW: I’ve always been into art since I was a kid. I went to uni and studied, but I still consider myself to be self-taught because they didn’t really teach you how to draw and paint there. I guess it really kicked off four years ago – I’d made a decision that I wanted to learn how to paint and draw properly. Since I moved back to Wigan, it’s really gotten going. I was working part-time as an artist for a while alongside a full-time job, and then from there it kind of gradually switched over to the other way around. 

As well as being a full-time artist I do loads of other jobs – install work, curation, odd jobs for people around the borough creatively, installing creative stuff, outdoor spaces as well with the council. The most recent exhibition was through Cross Street Arts, where we set up 20 aluminium di-bond prints of our work for the 25th anniversary installed on one of the squares in the market. And at Haigh Hall I’ve been working on a project with a group in recovery with photographer Sam Batley. We put on an exhibition in the walled gardens about life and recovery, creativity, nature. I did some workshops with the group and then took on the role of producer to make sure everything went smoothly. We’ve got some more funding to do another couple of rounds, so that’s good.

CY: So tell me a bit more about your fine art practice.

JKW: Drawing and painting is my practice. It’s kind of come from a pretty traditional place, so learning how to do it properly. I’m really interested in old techniques, and how you would have been taught in a traditional atelier. I love painting people and figurative stuff, from life if I can, and getting people to sit for portraits. It’s really nice when I get to connect with them – in the space of a few hours I really feel like I get to know somebody quite deeply. It’s a nice role to play.

CY: It must be quite intimate in a way!

JKW: Yeah, definitely. I do work from photographs as well and at the minute I’m trying to work more from imagination, so I might do one sitting with a model from life and then I might continue working on the painting from imagination, which is quite fun as it works a different part of your brain completely. I like painting landscapes outside when the weather permits. At the minute because I’m in my new studio, I’m trying to make bigger stuff. Because everything looks really small in this big room, which is cool!

CY: How long have you been in your new studio?

JKW: I think it’s six weeks now or coming up to two months. It’s floor five, the top floor at Spinners Mill. Took a month to get ready – I had to sand the floor, paint the walls and scrub all the brickwork down with acid and a metal brush. Now I’m kind of just taking it slowly. And it feels quite homely. It will definitely evolve over time. I want to put a sofa and a little kitchen or chill area. You know, a couple storage racks. I want to start getting some proper tools as well, so I might build my own canvases from scratch. When you’ve got such a big space, a canvas that looked huge in my old studio looks tiny in here! 

CY: What would be your dream project?

JKW: At the minute, I’m at this turning point where I want to try and push away from commissions and move into selling my own stuff. That’s the dream, to self-fund through my own art practice. I still do take commissions, particularly if people want to come in and sit for portraits from life, I’m all over that but I’m trying to steer away a little bit from working from photographs, slowly.

The next one on my list is to have a bigger, more ambitious solo show. Perhaps collaborating with other artists. So bringing in some kind of music and installation as well as just having the paintings. Within the exhibition, there would be different pockets of collaboration. I have a friend who’s a film score producer. We started to collaborate, so I sent him some paintings and he’s made a couple of pieces of music for them. They’re kind of ambient, instrumental and he uses a lot of recordings from his environment. 

So, that’s a taste of what I want to do. Just ambitious, something big, something exciting in Wigan, I think. Why not? I want to get people from Manchester to come to Wigan to see something. I think Wigan’s got a good amount of stuff going on at the moment. A lot of the things I see are of a really high standard and a lot of people say it as well.

CY: So that’s segued really nicely into my next question: What do you like about being a Wigan artist?

JKW: It’s great. I’ve had so many opportunities over the last three years. I feel the community is pretty tight knit and everyone seems to look out for each other. A lot of my friends that live in bigger cities say that it’s quite competitive. I’ve never really felt that in Wigan, I feel like there is enough stuff going round, if you really look for it and you’re driven. I never thought I would end up back here to be fair! But I have done, you know, so there’s something about it.

CY: What advice would you have for someone starting out as an artist in Wigan? 

JKW: Well, a few things I suppose. Number one would be you don’t need to go to a big city if you don’t want to. Especially now with technology and the internet I really don’t feel like it’s a necessity, whereas in the past it was because you couldn’t meet people and be involved in the art scene without being in a big city. But that’s changed now, the world is a lot smaller. And I think you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. 

The second piece of advice is whatever your practice is, just get really good at it. If you have a craft like drawing, painting, or you’re a musician or sculptor or photographer, filmmaker, just get really, really good at it. Because when you get really good skill wise, it gives you the freedom to do what you want in the studio. But it also means that people can’t ignore you quite as easily. 

And if you want help finding your feet, it’s ok to reach out and ask for advice! I’m always happy to answer questions and help other aspiring artists, and always looking to collaborate or paint portraits of people.

4th December 2024