A Catch Up with Victor Flavell.

Since leaving Glasgow last year, Victor Flavell has been busy. After spending time in Canada, he’s now living and working in Germany. His practice continues to explore a space between memory and imagination, reflecting on how we recall and reshape personal experiences. We recently caught up with Victor to hear about his life abroad and his latest collection of oil paintings.

You’ve travelled quite a bit since leaving Glasgow and GSA. Where in the world are you at the moment?

I’m currently living and working in Germany. I’m in a small town in the middle of the country where I have a view of hills and trees outside of my window. It’s a calm atmosphere to be painting in.

Can you tell us about your studio environment and how a regular working day plays out?

I’m working in a living room converted into a studio at the moment, spaces are hard to come by here. This way I can get to working as soon as I wake up. Currently, I’m in a transitional/rebuilding phase as an artist, leaving some things behind and chasing what’s next. So a lot of my daily routine right now is research: reading, image collection, writing. When I do get painting, I typically find an album (one without lyrics is best so I often find myself gravitating towards film scores) and listen to that all the way through. Once the album is over, I take a break and assess how the painting is going. Then I repeat the process with a different album.

Can you tell us about this new collection of paintings?

When looking back on previous work, I often found that I was obscuring the face somehow. When I got set up in this new environment, I decided I wanted to change that side of my practice. The obvious choice was to force myself into painting portraits.

Is there a particular theme or emotion you looked to explore?

Typically, I let the image direct me. I didn’t go into this series with any preconceived notion of what I wanted it to say or mean. I was just interested in faces so I let my instinct pick out my subjects without questioning it too much.

Do you work from life, photographs, memory, or a mix?

I mainly work from photographs, although I do work from life from time to time. When working from photographs, I like to include elements from memory or imagination. I put myself in the world of the photograph and try to experience it as a memory and then I paint that.

Has your approach to portrait painting evolved compared to previous work?

I try not to treat portraits any differently to other subjects, so I wouldn’t say that my approach is different. That being said, painting the face always brings up a certain kind of awe when it starts to appear on the canvas, the connection is just immediate. Maybe I’m too focused on this relationship between me and the face I’m painting to notice I’m doing anything different!

Which artists do you admire at the moment?

I’m constantly looking at a huge number of works and artists. If I had to pick just a few, recently I’ve been looking at Eugene Carrière – he’s just amazing. I’m also really enjoying the works I’m seeing online by Anthony Cudahy and Ellen Siebers. Hopefully I can see some in the flesh someday soon.

Big thanks to Victor for taking the time to fill us in on everything that’s going on in his world!