Driftless Art Academy
For the people don’t know anything about you, what would you like for them to know?
I guess I’m mostly an artist. I paint for 30 hours a week. I’m a full time student, and it’s called the Driftless Art Academy, which is where all the work you guys maybe you saw when I sent in work, where that all came from.
When did you start painting?
I started when I was 10. Then three years ago, the Driftless Art Academy opened in Rochester, teaching oils. I’d always wanted to paint in oils, so I started taking classes there, and became a full time student within a year.
Where do you get your ideas for some of your paintings?
The one I that you guys are going to show is actually my really good friend. She’s an RCTC student here. Her name’s Ingrid. I took photos of her for a project for digital art, and I really liked the photo, the one of her braiding her hair, and I asked her, “Can I actually, like, oil paint this?”
And that’s why it ended up turning into an oil painting.
So you just walk into a room, and you see things, and you view it, and you say, “You know what? I want to paint that?”
Yeah, although I’m still kind of learning how to do take photos of work, like how to position someone to paint a portrait, because a good photo of a person may not be a good photo to paint from. So you have to learn how to get the lighting right and stuff. So the one I did to my friend, I was trying to do it outside, to try and get the light how I wanted it so I could draw from it, or would end up turning into a painting of it. What is your inspiration, in general, behind your other work and your other paintings? Anything specific, or does it kind of just change depending on what you’re working on?
My previous work was from a curriculum from the Art Academy. Now, most of my work I want to be a portrait painter. My goal is to like paint portraits and I want to make a living as an artist. So a lot of my work is now working towards painting people. I’ve gotten some commissions now for portraits. So currently I’m painting a lot of people I know, like my current project is actually my brother. He’s been asking for two years.
Are you thinking at all about mimicking certain textures?
I’m trying to capture texture. Yes.. I also love painting fabric. Okay? So I love trying to do all the little folds and stuff in the fabric.
It is nice detail. And the fabric is very nice detail, even with the creases and the wrinkles.
And you can’t actually tell from that photo, but my that’s actually a dress that my friend made that’s not a store bought dress.
Do you ever get, like, painter’s block?
On the technical side, if I get stuck, like if I can’t figure out, “Oh, this face doesn’t look right,” because I’m painting at the Academy, I have an instructor who I can ask and get me unstuck. I’m out of the curriculum now… now, I’m creating my own like references and stuff. So that’s been a little bit different. I haven’t encountered it yet, because I either if I don’t know what to paint, I end up getting a commission, or if I don’t have a commission, I will end up knowing what I want to paint. So so far, it’s worked.
What’s the RCTC art program had to do with your career as an artist?
So far, it’s made me try different things, like I took ceramics last semester, and probably ceramics is something I would never have tried if I had done it here.
Did you find any interplay between the two?
Between ceramics and painting? Not really. The painting class here, I guess it sort of feeds into it. It’s different from, I’m very used to the way the Academy teaches it, so it’s just different doing it here.
What is, what would you say is like the best feature rctcs Art Department has, or something that people don’t maybe take as much advantage of at the school as they should if anything?
There are definitely some really good instructors. I have one I like looking how to be. An artist. I did talk to Simon, and that conversation was very helpful. So one of the things I’d say is definitely the instructors are knowledgeable, okay,
So when your viewers look at your paintings, what do you want them to think of what does it mean to you? You know, if I was to look at your painting, what would you want me to think
I guess it depends on the painting, because some of them I just do for a purely technical challenge, like the one I did of the three, I think you guys probably saw it, the one of the three ladies, yeah, front of the easel. That one I did purely as a technical I love the drapery in that one. This one, I’m really good friends with her, so it was just a lot of fun to paint her, and then, you know, bring her in and get to see her. I stopped showing her progress photos and got to see her reaction when I showed her the final painting. What was that like? That was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, there was a full class, so we had to be pretty quiet, but I’ll get to do it again when I show my brother his portrait.
What’s the story behind the two kids boogie boarding?
That’s actually my brother and I when we were little. I painted it when I was younger, like 13 years old. And I decided, if you look on my Facebook, there’s a comparison of one I did when I was 13 versus 18.
Do you ever work on something more than one thing at once?
Yes, I have to, because oil paints take so long to take a while to dry, and I’ll work in layers. So I have to, if it’s, if I go on top of it, when it’s like the paint, well, you can feel it, it’ll get sticky. So, I don’t know, remove your layer previous. So you have to make sure it’s dry. So right now, I probably, I think, have four on the go, but I will just switch in between. So I thought I can just change them when, if this one needs to dry, I can switch to another one.
So you say you really homed in on painting during COVID, right?
Yep.
And during that time, what was it like to paint like feeling wise? Was it like out of I don’t want to be home, I need something to do. Boredom.
I actually loved it, because the school that I had been going to, there have been a lot of discipline issues, and the people in my like classes were not very nice. So I was quite happy to just be home painting. In my opinion, it was great, because I could watch videos on how to do whatever it is I wanted to do, and then spend the afternoon painting, and then go back to watching videos, and that’s just and I hardly had any school because I didn’t really know how to do it online. So I could just spend all day.
What are you studying at RCTC? And what’s next?
I’m technically a fine arts major, so I go graduate. I did PSU, so I’ll graduate RCTC in May, and then I’ll probably stay at the academy and stay painting. Currently, I’m not gonna probably transfer to a college.
Are you at a high school last year or this year?
Last year I graduated high school. Last May, I’ll graduate RCTC this May. And my mom is actually an instructor here.
So what does she teach?
Nursing.
I’m just gonna ask, like, how much is this painting for sale for?
that one would probably be hard for me to sell, because that one, actually, I entered it into the state fair when I was in 11th grade, and I never entered anything into the State Fair, and it won grand prize.
Wow.
So then the three ladies I entered again last summer, and the three ladies won grand prize.
Will you submit again this year?
Probably, although this year I won’t be in the I was. I’ve been in the youth category because I’m still in high school. Okay, so now I have to submit to the actual Fine Arts exhibition, which is a lot more picky.
Does abstract art call you at all? Or do you think you will stay pretty fascinated by realism as long as you can see?
Currently, I can’t imagine doing abstract. I love doing realism. Like if you put me in a museum, I will just walk by the abstract. Put me in front of a realism painting, I will look at it for a while.
What do you like so much about realism?
Right now? Like capturing, capturing, people, like, I painted my friend and it looks like her, or like that one. It’s like, it looks like a lion. It looks fluffy…. I also appreciate the skill. Like, if I’m looking at another artist’s work, and I can look at it and go, that was really well done. I appreciate that more than looking at an abstract painting. I know the skill, there is skill in abstract art, but I see it more in realism work.
Yeah, like frame by frame is the wrong way to say it, but you can analyze, kind of, like stroke by stroke, how they were putting this thing together, or, like, what shapes they started with, and how well one of the things
Yeah I can look at it and go – one of the things I’ve been doing is master copies. So kind of taking apart, I guess, how they did it,
what’s been the most satisfying one of those that you’ve done?
Probably the three ladies. Took me four and a half months, 30 hours a week.
You ever considered teaching painting?
Yeah, I would, at some point, would probably want to teach a little bit. I just know from other artists that people who teach it end up not having much time for their own work. So I want to make sure I still have time for my own work.
Is that something you connected with Simon about because he seems like he still is able to put out a decent amount of work, or at least was I used to teach?
He told me that part of the reason why he used to why he started to teach RCTC was because before he was actually making he was making a living as an artist, but he’s only doing commissions. So he could never pick what he wanted to paint, like he can ever get to paint he wanted to paint. So if he taught he could have the income. But then all summer, he could paint whatever, or even during school year, paint whatever he wanted.
I know when I’m writing, sometimes I’ll just throw away the whole piece at the end, like, “I don’t like this,” and throw it away.
I could, but if I’m gonna do that, I’d better do it towards the beginning, because after 60 hours into it, I don’t really want to start.
Is there a way to correct the mistake in a painting?
Yeah, depending on what the mistake is. But oil paints are actually fairly forgiving as far as it goes.
So a typical painting of a face would take about how long?
once again, really depends on the portrait, because, like, if they’re wearing, if they’re wearing something that’s, like fabric, or a dress, or, right now I’m doing a girl who’s wearing plaid, which takes a while.
Do you have, like, a hierarchy of fabric challenges in your brain?
Probably sheer fabric would be, or lace. There was some lace in that picture, but, like, it was just Yeah. But I’ve seen people who will do like a whole lace dress. That’s just awesome.
So for people who don’t know who you are and where to find your work, how can they locate you?
I have Facebook and Instagram, which are both Elizabeth England fine art, and then on fine art America, I have, if you just search up Elizabeth England, and you’ll be there. Come up cool with the queens, with pictures of the Queen, because my name is Elizabeth England.
do you have a message in your paintings? Are they message based?
Sometimes not. Some of them, maybe. I mean, the one of Ingrid. I titled it Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, which is a verse from Psalms 139, 14, right now I’m doing another one of my grandparents hands, which is probably going to be I have two titles for it, either well done or fought the good fight. So some of them are a little bit Christian themed, but right now, I’m doing another this one’s a commission, but of a little girl sitting in Jesus’s hands. So there are definitely some Christian themes, and some of them some faith behind it.
It’s like, I feel like I’m looking at the painting. To be honest, might need to change my hobby.