Sharing Chloe's Space

I went to Chloe’s studio at about 3 PM on Saturday, the 28th of February, 2021.

Since I had been on campus before that time, it was a pleasant walk through Little India’s rows of little shops and vegetarian restaurants. The sun shone high and we were all drenched in the heat of the sweltering afternoon.

Chloe had mentioned earlier that she would be shooting a video and recording an interview for her solo exhibition at Art Porters Gallery titled, ‘CASA’ that is set to open on the 20th of March until 2nd of May, 2021.

Before a videographer from the exhibition house arrived, Chloe’s brushes needed cleaning. She asked me if I knew how to clean oil painting brushes and I used turpentine to clean mine. She told me I could use dishwashing liquid to clean them or I could purchase a bar of olive oil soap or a more expensive brush cleaning soap from an art supply store. The bar she had had lasted her 2 years!

First one had to clean the brushes with turpentine to get most of the paint off. Then the brushes had to wiped with a cloth or rag. Then, using the bar of brush cleaning soap, one had to rub the bristles into the bar until the soap adequately coated the brush and then to rinse it out under water, while using one’s fingers to coax the paint out from between the bristles. This was a rinse and repeat sort of process because of the tendency of oil paint to stick to the brushes and stain them. It took me a long while to get as much of the paint out as I could.

Since she would be occupied with the videographer soon and wouldn’t necessarily require my assistance for the afternoon, Chloe had asked me to bring something to work on while she was attending to the videographer. I was happy to spend the afternoon working on my own project because I understood that being an artist’s assistant isn’t the most conventional type of internship and there would naturally be busier days than others, depending on the artist’s schedule and specific needs for that day. I liked that Chloe and I were able to do our own thing for a while; the practicing artist doing preparatory work for her upcoming exhibition and the art student brainstorming about her own project.

She led me up to her space upstairs and made room for me on the floor and provided me with leftover scraps of linen and unprimed canvas fabric (I had mentioned that my project required painting on fabric and she offered some of her leftover pieces to do studies on). She brought me her tub of gesso as well as some PVA glue so that I would have a variety of explorations using different primers and fabrics. I began by coating the linen with one thick coat of gesso and left it in a corner to dry. I experimented with both the PVA glue and the gesso on the canvas fabric and left them to dry too.

In the meantime, I had my sketchbook and a pencil with me so I began sketching out a rough composition of what I would like to draw and paint on the pieces of fabric.

I was heavily inspired by the organic imagery around me and felt drawn to depict nature in the form of patterns, mandalas and a symmetrical composition.

While I was working on my own, Chloe was painting on the 4 canvases I had built, stretched and primed the previous week. The videographer and I watched while she painted with heavy blues, light greens and lemon yellows, gesturing wildly and using copious amounts of turpentine to move the paint around to create bold marks. She worked silently and with determination and it seemed as if her hands were doing most of the thinking for her; like she had committed her mark making gestures to muscle memory!

After she had brought the four canvases to life, the videographer and Chloe sat down for an interview. I overheard her describing her work and her intentions behind it. From what I could glean, her reason for the use of ultramarine blue was because she wanted to relate her work to a city in Morocco where all the houses were painted different shades of blue. The title of one of her paintings that depicted goats on trees compared gold to argon oil, which is a valued and highly sought after commodity. She also wanted the viewer to be transported to a tropical region through her works. This phrase stood out to me because of my own experience being surrounded by her paintings that were like forests!

It was an insightful experience to have been exposed to another aspect of what it’s like to be a practicing artist. I got to see some of what goes on before the exhibition opens and I am very grateful for this inside look! About 5 hours later, Chloe and I left the studio together, going our separate ways.