Self Portrait by Jesse Dayan
Explore available works by Jesse here
About why you paint:
-
When you first started painting, what drew you to it?
I grew up seeing my mother paint seriously in whatever spare time she could make for herself, she would often have her easel set up in the kitchen. I also remember the first time I saw paintings of the Blue Rider group. I was so captivated by the way they used colour which was so purely expressive and dislocated from the subject, it really stirred something in me that I hadn’t felt before. But I never had much interest in painting until I was at university. I was studying a course I could not relate to and looking for meaning in the world. I started looking through the art folio section at the university library. I’d take a stack of books every afternoon and flip through. I loved that when I left the library I would see the world reordered in the logic of whichever artist I had been looking at that afternoon. I think it was the visual complexity and the sense of a new world of language that really drew me into painting. I decided to try to begin copying some of the compositions I admired so that was the first time I began dedicating time to making art.
-
Has your reason for painting changed over time?
In a sense my reason for painting hasn’t changed at all, it’s still about a search for meaning and recording moments and feelings. However these days I’m usually thinking about how an artwork can be meaningful to someone else as well as just myself.
-
Was there a moment when you felt painting was the only way to express something?
I think this way all the time actually! There’s different ways I bring meaning into a painting but usually for me colour is one of the most important elements of a painting. A particular colour harmony might capture what I’m feeling and secretly import some meaning into a painting that I wouldn’t know how to explain otherwise.
-
Does painting feel more like a need, or a choice, for you now?
Painting is definitely a compulsion for me, I make a lot of sacrifices in life in order to paint. It’s really the thing I build my life around, the activity that brings order and meaning to my life.
About figures and the body:
-
You often paint figures — what draws you to them?
I think figures naturally carry so much meaning, they are the vessels in which we inhabit the world and relate to each other. They are containers of our stories, our desires, lust, tenderness, fragility, pity and suffering. I also enjoy that a naked figure is in some way timeless and can be found all through art history.
-
Are the figures you paint specific people, or more like emotional states?
Often my work begins with a moment observed in everyday life or from a life drawing drawn directly from the figure, so they usually begin with specific people but I usually look for something universal beyond that moment. I don’t like feeling bound by the expectation that a painting of a figure will be a portrait. I had a years long debate with an ex-girlfriend who was always jealous that she thought I painted a previous ex-girlfriend more often and more beautifully than her. I would always tell her I don’t necessarily think of those paintings as representing my ex, they’re more universal than that. But I think even when working with a professional model there’s always an individual mood with each model that will carry through into the work.
-
The body feels important in your work — what does it represent for you?
It’s different in every painting. Sometimes it’s desire, sometimes it’s just a contemplation about being alive. I’ve always been interested in how the body can be warped and stretched in a painting in order to express an aesthetic idea or emotion and yet the body still feels relatable.
-
Do you see parts of your own experiences or emotions in these figures?
There’s always a process of relating and connecting when I’m painting. I think the process of painting is a form of empathy but also I might be looking to represent a story or feeling I had experienced before. I do find a difference between when I paint male or female figures. I think maybe there’s something more complicated about self critical that comes out when I paint male figures, I feel more able to explore uglier emotions.
About attraction and subject matter:
-
What kinds of moments or images tend to catch your attention lately?
People in urban settings, compositions with patterns of strong shadows and light. Sometimes it’s a random moment in life which will call to mind a painting from art history that I admire. Sometimes the wonderful thing about painting is that it allows me to find beauty or interest in a subject I didn’t initially see. I recently did a series of plein air paintings with a friend in Paris. We’d walk into the park and have a look around, sometimes I’d let my friend choose where we’d set up and I didn’t immediately see anything interesting but when I sat down and really started looking I’d become engrossed and completely engaged in the scene.
-
Are there small, everyday things that trigger the desire to paint?
Yes, everyday life is usually where I find the most inspiration, if I’m being present and open to seeing I will find little moments that are captivating and can be the beginning of a painting.
-
Do you find yourself more drawn to quiet moments, or intense emotions?
The subjects of my paintings are probably more so quiet moments but I think the colours in my paintings can sometimes be quite intense. Often for me painting is an escape from turbulent emotions. Sometimes people have told me a particular painting seems so calming to them but when I was making the painting I had some kind of intense personal drama going on.
-
Are there themes you find yourself returning to again and again?
I am very interested in the act of representation so I’m drawn to scenes that have different kinds of representations within them, it might be a painting on a wall within a painting or a shadow. It might be also be a painting of a window, I enjoy the contrast of inside and outside space with light coming through to join the spaces together
About colour and intuition:
-
Do your works usually begin with an image, or with colour?
It can be either but usually I begin by thinking about the central colour harmonies and if the colour will be serving a more representational purpose or if it can be free from expectations. Often these ideas evolve as I’m painting.
-
Is colour more emotional, memory-based, or purely formal for you?
Colour is very emotional for me, it’s always expressive of something but there’s a formal aspect too, I am aware of the rules and the way colour will interact, sometimes I follow these rules but often I enjoy breaking them. I often think of colour functioning like harmonies in music.
-
When painting, do you rely more on planning or intuition?
I always plan a painting and often do several studies of a theme but as I’m making a painting I like to follow my intuition and let it evolve in whatever direction it happens to go. I also don’t like to follow my studies exactly and actually find the paintings feel stuffy if I do.
-
Are there colours you feel especially drawn to?
For me it’s about combinations of colours more than any one particular colour but a colour I love to have on my palette is Manganese Violet, it’s a beautiful soft violet that I use in so many different colour harmonies.
About the act of painting:
-
What kind of mental or emotional state do you enjoy most while painting?
I prefer calm and order when I am painting, I need my studio space to be tidy but if my painting is going well I can usually block out anything else that is going on in life and escape into the painted world.
-
Are you more calm or more emotionally charged when you work?
This has probably evolved over time. I think I’m better able to stay calm when things aren’t going to plan now and just trust that I’ll find a way forward in a painting. I like to carry forward an energy when I’m painting though, I’ve worked for a long time on painting faster and really pushing through with mark making and fluency. If I’m plein air painting I work vigorously, really rushing to capture everything and I can get quite angry until everything begins to come together and then I can relax a little.
-
When a painting gets stuck, how do you usually deal with it?
If I’m not feeling flow with a painting I try to put it aside and work on something else for a little while but never for very long. I don’t like to labor over a painting too much these days because I feel the labor comes across in the final painting, I aim for fluidity.
-
How do you usually feel right after finishing a work?
Often as though I didn’t achieve everything I wanted to but then when I look at it a month or so later I can actually appreciate what I did achieve and I wonder how I was able to paint that way.
About the viewer:
-
How long would you like someone to stay with one of your paintings?
I aim to make paintings that draw people in and give them something to ponder for some time and hopefully catch their attention again later and reward return viewing. I am usually so particular with my colour harmonies I hope people can spend enough time with the paintings to notice them. It’s one of the things I lament about sharing my work online, I feel so often the subtlety is lost.
-
Is it more important to you that they understand it, or feel something?
It’s more important to me that they feel something. I’m happy for a painting to mean anything to the viewer. I always think of Umberto Eco’s wish that a novel is a machine for creating interpretations. I think a successful painting is one which can mean something different to every person who looks at it.
-
If someone takes your work home, what role do you hope it plays in their life?
Actually sometimes I still find it strange when people want to live with my paintings, I wonder what they mean to them. I hope the painting would bring them some kind of comfort, joy and resonance.
-
What kind of space do you imagine your works living in?
Anywhere with nice light so the colours and nuance can be fully enjoyed
And lastly:
-
If you had to describe your current practice to a friend, without using any art language, how would you describe it?
I paint things I see in everyday life but I use a combination of drawing, photography and memory to add, subtract and distort things within the scene. In doing this I’m looking to create something more expressive and less pinned down to that moment itself. Often I use strong colours to express my feelings about those moments rather than describe what I saw exactly.
