The Show

Meet the Artists

Your Portraits

Esther Simmonds-MacAdam talks about teaching herself to paint during a trip to Spain and how those works provoked provocative conversations at her mother's 50th birthday. SP: When did you become a professional artist?

ES: Beginning 2008, in the middle of my graduate studies at U of T. I was studying education and I did focus groups with women using paintings I had done of men and realized that I wanted to follow up on their feedback and make those painting. I already loved painting and loved art before that... I just needed an idea. After that research was done, I started painting full time.

SP: From the focus groups you were able to come up with ideas to paint. Can you explain this?

ES: In 2006 I took a year off between my undergrad, which was Women's Studies at Concordia and my graduate studies. That year I went to Spain, to try to teach myself, in particular, oil painting. I had no idea how to paint men. I thought it would be a challenge. In Spain I painted anyone who was willing to let me photograph them at work or at home, just doing what they naturally did. I could not afford models.

I took the paintings back with me to Toronto and had them hanging all over my house. Around that time, it was my mom's 50th birthday. All her friends came over and saw the paintings. I was excited because they would be able to give me feedback. No one had seen anything that I had painted before. But instead of talking about things like my brushwork, they ended up talking about how erotically provocative the paintings were and talking about their sexual preferences. The paintings are not suggestive at all. The men in them are not naked... there are no 'big flags' that this is a painting to be turned on by.

I entered U of T the following fall, and decided to use my graduate thesis to explore how women could be encouraged to feel comfortable verbalizing their sexual fantasies and interests. I decided to do focus groups with the same women and paintings that provoked the original conversation. I had them talk about the paintings and what made them think they were erotic. I wanted to know the when and where--the places and moments they talk about such things. Was it unusual to talk in such detail with others about their desires? I got a lot of really good feedback. Visual encounters like with a painting or a band at a concert are moments when these women were more comfortable articulating their erotic thoughts. There was a reference point. Also, the men in the paintings were people doing what they naturally do - none of them looking at the viewer. Having the man look away allows the female viewer to gaze at him without interruption, and without thinking about how he might perceive her. Women are used to being looked at. They are not as used to looking themselves. So, the woman is in charge and able to comfortably gaze at the paintings... and look at men who are focused, working with their hands, solitary and not asking to be looked at. They liked that the men didn’t seem vain. They saw them as vulnerable. I had enough information to do more paintings in this vein. That is what I'm doing right now - painting artists, cooks and guys reading. Hopefully, I will be taking it further. In Women’s Studies there is a lot of talk about the gaze of the viewer. Usually this viewer is presumed to be a heterosexual male. I am interested in painting for a different gaze.

SP: Did you look at the way you paint your subjects a different way after hosting the focus groups?

ES: Yes, I am a lot more mindful now. Before, I was going on gut... choosing subjects and painting things based on that initial gut reaction towards the subject. If I had an emotional reaction to it I would paint it and not think too much about it. Once I had that group of paintings in one room and had such a particular response, I felt more clear about why I was choosing what I was choosing, and what I could do with it later on. I definitely choose things that I know will suit a painting but sometimes I choose other things. For a break, I was painting landscapes to try and work with other colours. It’s a way to practice as well as stuff' to improve my repertoire.

SP: How would you describe your style?

ES: I create vibrant figurative oil paintings. Characterized by strong contrast and the playing of natural light, I engage in a kind of 'ragged’ realism. I use strong colour, intimate composition and visible brushwork to communicate the private, reflective moments of my subjects.

SP: What artists have been your biggest inspirations?

ES: Having never studied art history or fine art formally, my influences have come to me via personal encounters with specific art works. A strong inspiration has always been a painting by Georges Henri Rouault, which hangs in my grandparents' home, of a peasant woman writing. The blunt shapes and dark colours create a painting heavy with emotion that arrested my attention as a child. As an adult, I have sought out paintings that create that same response in me. Though I have not viewed them in person, the work of Marlene Dumas is particularly powerful. Her style and social intentions with painting are an inspiration.

SP: Where do you see yourself going with your art?

ES: I don’t know. I just want to be able to keep on making art. I’ll stick with figures for a while and show more so I can keep painting.

Artist Stats

Esther Simmonds-MacAdam is a self-taught artist and began painting while living in Granada, Spain in 2006. Her work is an expansion from in-depth research. She is a member of the Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts in Toronto, ON and also exhibits her work with Christiansen Fine Art in Peterborough, ON.  Her paintings have appeared in a number of solo, and group exhibitions.

www.esthersm.com