Video transcript
ARTEXPRESS 2021 - Student interview - 03. Isabella Gaffey

ISABELLA GAFFEY: Hi, my name's Isabella Gaffey, and I study visual arts at Colo High School. My body of work is about my grandfather, who participates in the Newcastle Men's Shed.

And I took portraits of these five men to demonstrate how well they work as a team and how that woodworking as a collaborative effort. And the outcome of these portraits is to capture how these men gain an authentic purpose in their lives. I was inspired by the camaraderie and mateship of this group in particular.

So I have a particular fascination for elderly people's faces when it comes to portraiture, and I knew I wanted to do this on a more personal level so that that way, I involved my Pop and his friends, and it made it more meaningful to me.

My body of work consists of five realistic portraits that are done on raw timber with acrylic. When you look at these works, you will notice the fine detail of the wrinkles and especially the gaze. The gaze is something that was really important to me, as it is an honest and raw look in portraiture, and this is something that I really wanted to capture.

When creating the artwork, it began with layers. So I started by creating the general skin tones of each face and figuring out the colours and pigments of each skin. And as I kept developing this, I made sure to use really thin brushstrokes with really thin paintbrushes.

So I came across small challenges, but overall, I have been practicing painting for almost my whole life, and it was something that came naturally to me. So the problem with it was that I had teachers saying things from their perspectives, and I had different ideas brought up by different teachers all the time. So it was something that I didn't-- I had to really stick with my gut and stick with what I knew and what I wanted to be the outcome.

But definitely the support, like staying behind and staying back and supporting me, like finding materials-- my teacher went and got the pegboards for the background display. It was something that-- yeah, they definitely supported me, physically and mentally through.

The one piece of advice I would give to students generating a body of work is to stick with what you know and what you love. That was portraiture for me. And I think that this is really important, because you become really passionate about this as a body of work.

I'm currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts in education. I plan to be an art teacher. I love working with people, and I love art. And I hope that this is something that will continue to be in my life.