Chloe Hamill is a painter who experiments in various mediums including photography, mixed media, and sculpture. Her work is based on the human experience, and explores themes of grief and anxiety. She creates paintings that are emotional and energetic, usings abstract shapes to capture the viewer’s eye as others can form imagery through this. Her intentions for her work are to express her own inner conflicts, knowing this could be reciprocated by the viewers.

Seesaw is an exhibition of works by artists Coleen McGinley, Chloe Hamill and Lisa Bonner exploring the playful and fun nature of the artistic process. Each artist’s work explores differing themes and ideas whilst all sharing the same belief that the process of making should be experimental and playful. Coleen, Chloe, and Lisa strive to find the joy in developing artworks and understand that through experimenting, unexpected things can happen that turn out better than you could imagine. All three artists share a love for painting and how it can be used to explore their interests and push their practices.

How has your practice changed over time?
My work is intuitive and expressive, usually created when I’m overwhelmed with emotions. I find it more rewarding and engaging than forming words. In college and university, I was encouraged to create concepts to form my work, but I felt this disconnected my work. I made political artwork at university in 2020 in Dundee as we were in a lockdown and everything I was talking about was relevant. Now, my paintings are symbolic and with colour theory, I can create different moods through each artwork.

Which artists inspire you? Are there non-artistic influences such as literature or music that impact your work?
Tracey Emin’s work is vulnerable and authentic. I enjoy the playfulness in her work despite the rawness in her intentions. Her work is painful and real yet displayed in such a simple way. When it comes to music I listen to mainly Taylor Swift’s album ‘Folklore’ which was a big inspiration for making my large-scale wooden board paintings; ‘Bedroom Tantrums’, ‘Ache’ and so on.  

What do you do to keep motivated and interested in your work?
Friends. By connecting with other artistic people I feel surrounded by art and this makes creativity come more naturally. As an artist, it’s so important to see others create, to ask questions and learn from them. 

Can you walk us through your creative process?
Music can set the mood of an expressive artist. By listening to music and creating a base for my board/canvas, I can connect to the artwork without questioning what to do next. Abstract work allows the artist to experiment with brushstrokes, colour and shapes. As I move through my artwork I can see everything come undone and come together again; it’s like a dance that you follow along with. The trust I have in my ability to paint took years of frustration as painting was never natural for me. It’s all a learning process. 

How do you overcome creative blocks?
Drawing and painting warm-ups and drawing for the sake of it. Do it without expectations. It’s better to make bad artwork than to make nothing at all. 

SeeSaw runs at Six Foot Gallery until Friday 5th April. See more of Chloe’s work on Instagram @chloeahamill