Playful Fruit Circles

Yvonne Valdemarca

Interview by L. Valena

First, just start by telling me what you responded to.

When I got those images, I thought, Oh wow, what am I going to do with this? Just looking at them, I noticed a lot of circles. Also the colors. Of course, coming towards the end of winter, Hallelujah, Oh color color color! It feels like it’s been a really long one. Anyway, I thought I’d play with colors and circles. I tried a whole lot of things, with watercolor and ink, but wasn’t getting what I wanted. So this was the perfect opportunity to play and try out new things. And throw away lots of disasters!

My next thought was they’re actually natural objects, flowers and fruits. There’s that element of being altered by people, sliced, rearranged. It’s about taking what was really there, and then changing it in some way to make something new. I kept going, though not really very happy with it so I decided I needed to change it from just a watercolor-and-ink piece, and I should try playing with it and altering it digitally. I used to do that a couple of years ago. I would take photographs, play with them digitally, and then do a painting from that digital image. I might still want to do that with this one, take it a little bit further, because it almost feels like it’s cheating in a way. 

Why do you say that? 

I don’t know, I think it’s me. I mean, digital art is really, really cool and I love seeing what other people do. So I don’t know, maybe it is done. Maybe that’s where it should just end and then move on and try something else. I am trying to get into more abstracted work and it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. 

I have a really hard time with anything abstract any time I’ve tried. I’m way too literal. 

That’s me too. It still looks like whatever I’m basing it on, I can still see what it is. So thank you for that! All right, the digital piece. It pushed the colors a lot more from what I had down on the paper, too. I looked at them and had to decide - shall I send you both? But I like this one better so this is the one you’re getting!

We’d love to see the original one for process if you don’t mind. We love process stuff. It’s so cool to see how things develop. It’s such a powerful part of it.

It’s nice to see how other people get there. 

Absolutely! Let’s back up just a little bit. You took a look at these photos that you received. Can you walk me through what happened first? How did you get from there to actually beginning this piece?

You know, they are three very different images, so I think the initial question was, What do they all have in common? That’s where I came up with that circular kind of piece. I jotted a few things down, did a couple of little very rough sketches, just played with that. I thought it would be interesting because the colors were probably different from what I would normally have on my palette, so it pushed me out of my comfort zone. Then I went into the sketchbook and tried a couple of little things here and there and realized I needed to get it on paper because there was a time crunch!

That thought process took me much longer than it should have. When I look back, I think I should just get drawing and painting, get on the paper sooner, rather than overthinking it all the time. So the deadline is good!

The deadline is good! And it’s just part of your process, right? No judgment, you know? I know I can get really mental about stuff too. Gotta think things out and let it play out. It’s just part of the process.

Yeah, and I’m very lucky. I have an artist neighbor and friend. Normally, when we’re not in a pandemic, we do a lot of painting together. I chatted with her about it, and we tossed a few ideas back and forth. And like I say, I extended that overthinking session for far too long before I got on the paper. 

That’s great that you were able to bring a brainstorming session into it. 

She’s wonderful. We work so well together because we just bounce ideas off each other all the time. I miss that. I miss our studio time together. 

Yeah, there are so many things that are so easy to think of as just a nice part of my life that I could appreciate. But then suddenly we’re in a pandemic and all of these nice things have to be put on pause. It sucks!

We realize the little things are the big things.

Exactly! Well, can you tell me a little bit more about how this piece relates to the rest of your work?

I’m not sure that it does! It’s really very different because, on the whole, my work recently has been more about landscape. Like I say, I really want to try and get more abstract, and this was the perfect opportunity. Doing the digital piece, the colors are definitely a lot brighter than I would normally do. And when I send you the original, you will see that. Looking at that one on the paper as well, I thought, This is not what I wanted. So this is really very new for me, but I like it. I think this is great. This is a good place for me to start. It’s a good kickstart to work more abstractly. I think I do want to keep the landscape as part of it, but I want to abstract it more.

You don’t have to choose, right? We can do it all! 

We can do whatever we want. That’s the trouble! I need someone to tell me. What should I do?

When you look at this piece now, what does it say to you? Apart from the prompt, what do you see in it? 

I like that this still has the circular elements and I really liked the heart-shaped strawberries in that first image. And I quite like the idea of that staying in there. I must admit I quite liked the idea of doing a triptych, like the three images, but of course I didn’t. That would be six months away, maybe. 

This style of working abstract, is that totally new for you or is it something that you’ve played with in the past? 

It’s something that I’ve tried on and off, but there’s no time like the present. I just thought that during a pandemic, I can’t be doing anything else, this is a great time to do it. What else am I going to do? I’m not sure that it really does relate to it. Maybe someone else could see things that I’m not seeing. You know how that always works.

I love the idea of you making a painting based on this. That seems like it could be really fruitful and fun. 

Oh I like that, thank you. And I like that fruitful comment! I think that goes with the fruit! 

Well what haven’t I asked you about? What did we miss?

I don’t know! “Was it fun?” Yes. “Was I stressed?” Yes. “Were you nice to me?” Yes.

[laughs] Good! All an expected part of the process. It can be stressful, and good for you for sticking with it. You know, sometimes people just ghost because it’s too much. And that always bums me out. So good for you for seeing it through because it is hard.

It was fun!  I had no idea what to expect.  I found you on Instagram and I’ve seen little things and I thought, Well, let’s do this, play with new thoughts. I think it’s a great idea, what you’re doing. 

Oh, thank you! Yeah, it’s really fun. It’s just always such a thrill to see what comes out of these exercises. You know, it’s a game that were playing together and it’s really fun. It’s so cool to see what bubbles up from it. Just totally delightful.

And of course, everybody does such different things, I’m sure.

Oh yeah, totally different. So do you have any advice for someone else who’s going to do this? 

Other than just do it? I would honestly say, definitely do it, but maybe don’t do what I did and overthink things for so long, rather just get stuck in and play and enjoy it because it’s really fun! And so what if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. Did you learn something? Hopefully. So just do it. Enjoy the process.  

Call Number: Y50VA | Y54VA.vaPla

Yvonne Valdemarca studied Fine Arts in Durban, South Africa and went on to work in the advertising industry before discovering teaching Art at the High School level. She moved to Canada and has been fortunate to set up a home studio and get back into painting and drawing. She usually works in acrylics and watercolours, but often some collage creeps in and then dabbles with some digital art too.