Video transcript
ARTEXPRESS 2022 - Student interview - 09. Sophie Beedham

SOPHIE BEEDHAM: Hi, I'm Sophie Beedham, and I studied visual arts at Caroline Chisholm College. So, my body of work is about the architectural changes throughout the decades, and I really focused on the '60s with the fibro style housing. So, my title of my artwork is inspired by the geographical location it was developed from, so it's 'Fibro Abstractions, Richmond'.

I was really interested in the colours that they used, all the pastels and how that clashed with the raw brick, and I made sure to incorporate that throughout my artwork, either through texture or colour. So specifically, I focused on my area of Richmond, and that would fall under lower socioeconomic. And I was really interested in how people like changed it to make it their own, their individual housing, even though it was all like a housing trend throughout the '60s, throughout all social classes.

Well, architecture is quite a large part of our family. It's in our past. So, at the same time, I have a fascination with architectural forms. I've noticed this house here, this green house. It's always been present. Like, I've seen it all the time when I was younger, and it's just this green house, like, standing out in the street.

So, it all started when me and my friend decided we would take some photos. And we decided to go to the Richmond area first, and then I remembered this one house that has never been finished. So, it's surrounded by all other finished houses, but it's this bright green house. It was like standing out in the street, and it's never been finished. And it's covered in building materials, and it's got numbers written on it. And I just thought that would make a really good artwork.

At the end of Year 11, we studied Catherine O'Donnell. And I really liked how she used perspective in her drawn works, but I thought I could adapt that into different mediums. So, I really liked how she worked with shadows and how she changed perspective of how she would draw or approach architecture she found in places like Blacktown.

So, my ceramics, I developed alongside my prints in lockdown, so they were done simultaneously. And I thought I wanted to work with how I was creating the collagraph, like cutting out materials. And I thought I could make really sharp angles and make these pots really interesting through colour since I was already using texture on my collagraph.

So, throughout my whole series, I tried to use around the same colour palette. So, I changed like greens to yellows, and instead of blues, I changed it to lilac and purple. And I made sure to incorporate that onto the surface of my pots. So, my pots are still very architectural. I made sure to get sharp points and different angles, not particularly like following all the same shapes either. I added little accent bits, and I made sure to use tools that I could cut either really sharp lines with or create texture, like in print texture.

So, throughout my collagraphs, I did use found materials like ribbon to then stick on and create this really nice texture that would pick up ink, and I also use things like a pumice gel, which I would then use to create that really grainy brick texture. So, the painting, I originally started with my painting, and I did get quite a bit of teacher help with figuring out how to begin the actual painting.

So, it had to start with a base layer of colour, and then I had to continue to build up like both colour and use different textured gels. I really wanted to make sure I captured how the weathered and both how old the buildings were, so I made sure to use all different-- I used all different tools. I used my fingers. I used paint brushes. I used dry paint brushes. I used the end of paint brushes. I use scrapers, so yeah.

The challenge for my body of work was really the lockdown because I had half of my painting done, and then I had to go home for a few months and finish my 3 pots and my 3 collagraphs on my own. And that meant communication with my art teacher was really, it was like limited because you could only get back to them at a certain time. And sometimes, they wouldn't see your email, so with a lot of it, I really had to do it on my own, completely my vision, just can just go for it basically.

I definitely wasn't expecting to get into ARTEXPRESS, but it was always a goal of mine to really push myself with my body of work. This is like your final thing you do at school for visual arts, so I really wanted to do as much as I could in the amount of time that I could. But um-- yeah.

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