Jack McGarrity Q&A
by Dr Claudia Milburn

 

Q. What first inspired your practice?

I first became interested in drawing from looking at cartoons and comic strips when I was younger, and I think this influence is still present in my current work. I am still interested in sequences and depicting multiple images on the one surface to imply narrative.

Q. What has been your background / training and how influential has that subsequently been?

I completed my BA in Painting and Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art. Whilst studying at Glasgow I was really interested in making big figurative oil paintings. This changed a lot when I studied at The Royal Drawing School. At the Drawing School I became more interested in making smaller works on paper with a focus on collages. Now I am trying to combine these two aspects of my practice by returning to making larger scale works whilst trying to retain aspects of my smaller works on paper.

Q. Tell me more about your subject matter and the inspiration for your work?

During the lockdown I became really interested in the work of Lois Dodd and I think because of that, at the moment I am mainly interested in depicting small everyday moments and how these could somehow be given more status or make quotidian objects more monumental.

Q. Who or what has been your greatest influence as an artist? Which artists most inspire you?

When I was at Glasgow I got the opportunity to study at the Prado for two months. During this time, I mostly made drawings from Goya’s work, and I still think about his use of composition and application of paint a lot today when I work. Guston and Picasso are also major inspirations as well as contemporary artists such Mamma Anderson, Jokum Nordström and Jennifer Packer.

Q. Can you tell me about your mark-making process?

I usually start with an extremely bright ground which I then work on with gradually darker tones. I always like to try and keep some areas of the ground piercing through. This was something that I saw in Goya’s work, and I think it helps unify the image whilst also providing some areas with some unusual colour combinations. Once I have a basic image I am relatively happy with I will sometimes work over it using other materials to enrich the surface quality of a work or try and create some jarring areas using collage.

Q. What is the most challenging element of your practice?

I think trying to restrain the amount of colours I’m using in the early stages of a painting I feel l sometimes make work that can be too much and not work as a cohesive whole.

Q. How do the processes of drawing and painting relate to each other in your work?

I think drawing and painting are becoming more and more intertwined in my work. I see the smaller gouache works very much as drawings but formally and stylistically they aren’t very different from the larger works on canvas. I have also started using oil bars a lot which I feel has further burred the line between the two disciplines.

Q. What for you are the desired essential qualities of image-making?

I think an image, or a painting specifically, has to be rewarding over time and not give everything away all at once. I think this has to apply to both how a painting is made but also its meaning or narrative – if it has one. I also enjoy being able to see the process of how an image has been constructed. When I erase things in my work I try to leave some trace of it behind, to give some sort of palimpsest idea to create a sense of history within the image.

Q. How do you see your work relating to tradition and contemporary art practice?

From doing residencies at the Prado and in Florence I am extremely interested in the history of painting, and I think this permeates a lot of my work, whether it be through references or even aspects of composition or colour. In London just now there seems to be a real renewed interest in painting and I hope my work can be part of this.

Q. What are the latest developments in your work?

Recently I have become interested in how I could create an image using very little tonal difference and almost monochromatic colour palette. I have been looking at Rothko’s work a lot and I think this has inspired this direction for the work.

Q. What are the specific locations you have worked from and why you have been drawn to the scenes depicted?

Most of this work has been based on places I see every day. A lot of the works are based on the studio and my flat. I liked the idea of trying to make something interesting out quite boring and common places. A lot of the works also have images within them, and this was a way of trying to insert some kind of narrative into the works even if that is not explicit.

Q. Where are the familiar motifs in your work drawn from?

A lot of the familiar motifs in the work come from the previous drawings that I have made, and a lot of the recurring imagery comes from the area I grew up in Scotland – a lot of the imagery is quite localised. I also like using imagery from mass culture as well and trying to blur the line between something personal and imagery that is very public.

Q. Why are Hopper and Munch of particular influence to your work at present?

I really love how so much of Munch’s work is based on the small area around which he lived and how he was able to transform these on the surface banal scenes. With Hopper I was really drawn to the how is works have such a strong sense of presence and the way he seems to acknowledge the viewer. It feels like there’s almost a sense of intrusion and I thought that was really powerful, and something I wanted to play with.

Q. How does drawing continue to be fundamental to your practice?

Everything starts with drawing, usually as small doodles in my sketchbook and then into some larger charcoal drawings. I feel like a lot of the paintings are more drawn than painted. Some of the paintings even have drawings stuck directly on to them.

Q. How much are your paintings pre-planned or spontaneous in their making process?

It varies some are relatively pre-planned but once I start, I never stick to it. Most of the paintings start off as something completely different, with a completely different colour scheme intended and then gradually change over the process of making.

Q. Ambiguous and intriguing narratives strongly feature in your work – from where do these derive?

These come from many different places. Sometimes it’s from something I’ve seen when I’m out or sometimes it’s from something I’ve read or watched. Some of the work featured in the show is from stills of Love Island in which I was thinking about its voyeuristic nature and ideas around Bentham and the panopticon.