ARTIST OF THE WEEK - SAM LOCK

SAM LOCK
Painter

Describe your work…..
Worn, eroded, corroded surfaces, visual reminders of places, feelings, things past.
History. Archaeology.


Favourite living artist…..
My mum, Jenny Lock, the best painter I know; she makes work that touches people and that has inherent poignancy.

Favourite historical artist…..
Jannis Kounellis, Sculptor, monumental, primal, weight, substance, immediacy – elements I wish I could achieve within my paintings.

Inspiring place…..
Melvich beach in Sutherland, North Highlands – 20 foot deep rockpools, amazing microcosmic spaces; Glencoe, melancholic landscape made by unimaginable natural forces and stained by human history and cruelty.


Where and what is your studio?
Painting for me is a solitary practice, I try and lose my self-awareness cos otherwise I make contrived and shallow imagery that falls in love with itself. My best work comes from being brave and destructive. My studio is by the Clocktower in the heart of Brighton shared with 5 other artists; a typical day at the studio involves lots of tea and listening to Bob Dylan while making a right racket with my electric sander and noxious fumes with my blowtorch.

Do you work best on your own or in collaboration?
I work best on my own because my paintings are personally driven and introspective but I prefer to exhibit with a group – not just because of safety in numbers, but I like the way different work talks to each other, the conversations that can develop between paintings, sculpture, spaces; connections, clashes, crossovers.


Do you have a good work/life balance?
As well as my own practice, I have a manic job at Croydon College running several art programmes, including A Level Art, A Level Photography and the Foundation Course in Art & Design. I love working with the students but also treasure the holidays where I can be in the studio day after day! I also have a 5 month old baby called Noah who is cute as buttons and a right distraction.

Most overated artist/maker?
Howard Hodgkin! Arrogant and dismissive – paints like a sledgehammer, turns colour into mud. But I’m sure he won’t lose sleep just because I don’t like him.


If you could exhibit in any gallery which would it be?
The Botanical Gardens at Inverleith in Edinburgh – I saw the British Art Show exhibits by Anya Gallaccio and Damien Hirst there when I was a student at Edinburgh College of Art and the setting heightens the senses and is conducive to thoughtfulness.

What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
Lost(found).


Who would you say buys your work?
Gawd knows!
I would like to think that they are maybe people who like puzzles, who don’t like to be told what to think but would rather create their own meanings for paintings, who enjoy the freedom offered by abstraction and the opportunity to spend time looking. People who want more than a glance.