Art / The Other Art Fair 2018
Interview: Brook Tate
Bristol artist Brook Tate is among the artists who’ll be exhibiting at The Other Art Fair Bristol 2018 (July 26-29, Passenger Shed). Here he is to tell us more about himself and his work.
I moved to Bristol almost two years ago with the intention to study nursing at UWE, but after painting a particular portrait of a girl called Hanna last year, my little adventure into Bristol’s creative scene began, and it has taken me quite a long way since!
I started painting at about 18, when I found some old paints in my dad’s garage. I experimented with different techniques by copying pictures from old books or postcards, and I soon found a love of portraiture.
is needed now More than ever
I love finding faces in the street and many of the models have been, or become, close friends of mine. I paint on wood because there was a lot of it in my dad’s garage, and I think it is a naturally beautiful surface to work on. I love engraving and highlighting sections with gold leaf, and I sell embellished reproductions of my work too.
This is my first time showing with The Other Art Fair. I worked behind a bar at one of their shows in London last year and decided ‘Yep. I’ll have a stab at this’. I’m so glad I made that decision. Having always seen painting as something I did just now and then, and not really having a background in any formal art training, I needed something like The Other Art Fair to commit to in order to take a step into the bigger, and slightly more intimidating, art scene. So far I have had wonderful feedback and encouragement from being part of the event, all of which has been much needed when you are questioning whether to carry on committing so much energy to ‘making stuff’.
I can’t imagine what I would be doing had I not moved to Bristol. The city has moved me to create in so many ways and I have found a true home here through the communities I have become entwined in. I write music with some wonderful musicians, and I am also writing and developing (with Bristol Old Vic) a new musical based on a book I wrote for my nieces last year!
Bristol artist Brook Tate
The musical, Mr Maglump, was inspired by Bristol’s colours and energy. I will be showing a few of the illustrations from the book at the fair too. I may not be nursing, but I am learning to use my two hands to help people dance and sing and see the community we live in as something beautiful. Very cheesy, but we need a bit of that in the world today…unless you’re a vegan.
I’ll be showing my work at stand 36 at The Other Art Fair. It would be lovely to have people pop along, there are so many wonderful painters and sculptors and makers of beautiful things.
Brook Tate exhibits at The Other Art Fair Bristol 2018, July 26-29, The Passenger Shed. For more info, visit bristol.theotherartfair.com
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