{"id":26254,"date":"2024-06-15T08:51:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T08:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/?p=26254"},"modified":"2025-12-21T16:48:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T15:48:23","slug":"what-artists-like-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/what-artists-like-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Curated by Artists #4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
– with Guest Curator Olivia Mansfield<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Olivia in her studio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Delve into the evocative world of Guest Curator Olivia Mansfield<\/a>, who was nominated by painter Tia Taylor Berry<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


NW<\/strong> –  Layering seems to be an important feature of your work. It’s physically layered, in the way you apply your materials. But also in terms of imagery, with two or three paintings sometimes existing harmoniously within one space. Do you sketch out your paintings first, or see what emerges during the process? 

OM<\/strong> -The way I work is usually incredibly intuitive, I tend to start with an open mind as to what might manifest, keeping a fluid brush stroke and an unsharp eye on what\u2019s happening. It may be figurative, floral, abstract, landmass, cave or mountain\u2026I tend to accept the rhythm which finds me\/the piece and run with it.  I do make sketches and small works (drawings, paintings, collages) which sometimes move to inform the larger pieces. But generally the emergence of the faces\/beings\/beasts which appear are very spontaneous and unplanned. I like to think they are fragments\/elements, maybe shadows or snapshots of what\u2019s happening in my subconscious mind. If I\u2019m ever feeling uninspired, I will often sit and look through books, sift through imagery\/sketches\/scraps from the studio in order to light a spark which can then be followed whilst I\u2019m painting. 

NW<\/strong> – I read that your work draws upon a wide range of references,  including myth, legend, folklore, sci-fi, ritual, symbolism. Is there a story or character that you find particularly inspiring, or meaningful? Or perhaps one that is memorable in some way.

OM<\/strong> – I love everything and anything folklore – the idea of storytelling, passing down and maintaining tangible links to our history and ancient cultures is so important.  One of my favourites are the stories of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann from Irish mythology, I enjoy a lot of the symbolism and meandering narratives which come from Celtic mythology, creatures like the Kelpie and the Selkie are some favourites. Also an all time fave from Greek Mythology is anything surrounding the Perseus myth, who famously slew Medusa. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Steady the Pull, Hold and Release
Olivia Mansfield
12 x 18 cm | 4 x 7 in 
Mixed media painting on card
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NW<\/strong> – There are often females at the centre of your work. Are they based on yourself, or are you interested in female archetypes in general?

OM<\/strong> – Powerful female figures\/archetypes are found within so many different cultures, religions, legends from across the globe and that\u2019s always something I have been drawn to and wanted to learn more about from a young age. I genuinely didn\u2019t expect that my work would end up being such a deep exploration of the idea of \u2018self\u2019 and of the stages of womanhood – more recently the focus on the Maiden, Mother, Crone archetypes.  After having my little boy I re-started my practice and I was in such an undeniable state of transition and change within myself, physically, emotionally, spiritually, it just bled out into what I was producing. Once that figure was there on the page\/canvas, it was kind of hard to ignore her. 

NW<\/strong> – I haven’t met you, but your work gives the impression that it’s a real extension of you and your imagination. Have you ever translated these ideas into another medium, for example clay, or words, or dance? 

OM<\/strong> – I write a lot alongside my work and I have been known on occasion to perform these pieces\/poems in shows alongside the exhibited paintings. I\u2019ve also recently acquired a kiln and will be firing it up very soon with a new body of work, it\u2019ll be really fun to explore the interplay between my paintings and the world of ceramics. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The Gaze Within Her
Olivia Mansfield
12 x 18 cm | 4 x 7 in 
Mixed media painting on card
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NW<\/strong> – Finally, what kind of drawings did you make as a child?
OM<\/strong>: Mad creatures and lots of colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Keep scrolling to see the brilliant works Olivia has highlighted from the New Blood Art Collection, plus some of the things that inspire her. Olivia has nominated ethereal painter <\/strong>Colette Lavette<\/strong><\/a> as the next Artist Curator, so look out for that.  <\/strong>

Thanks for reading \ud83d\ude42<\/strong>
Nicola Wiltshire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See below link to previous What Artists Like<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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What Artists Like #4<\/mark><\/mark><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Tropical Venus
Sophie Baker
45 x 65 cm | 17 x 25 in 
Oil on canvas
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Se Transmuta, Se Transmite
Roselin Estephania
23 x 31 cm | 9 x 12 in 
Watercolour on paper
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Moment Before II
Lisa Pettersson
29 x 42 cm | 11 x 16 in 
Mixed media drawing on paper
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SelectedRachel McDonnell
30 x 15 cm | 11 x 5 in
Oil and tree marker on wood panel
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Stigmata III
Hannah Kate Absalom
29 x 42 cm | 11 x 16 in
Original woodcut ink on cartridge paper
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Fruiting_Body.002
Damaris Athene
92 x 82 cm | 36 x 32 in
Original sculpture in mixed media (freestanding),
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Unknown Spill 2
Charlotte Buckley60 x 84 cm | 23 x 33 in
Limited Edition photograph on photographic paper on board (edition of 11)
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Still Life With Flowers, Hen And Figures
Octavia Madden
28 x 29 cm | 11 x 11 in
Limited Edition mixed media piece on paper (edition of 1)
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week Nicola delves into the evocative world of Guest Curator\u00a0Olivia Mansfield, who was nominated by painter\u00a0Tia Taylor Berry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[525],"tags":[505,501,295,507,506,504,500,503,502],"class_list":["post-26254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curated-by-artists","tag-artist-mother","tag-artists","tag-emerging-art","tag-female-archetypes","tag-female-artist","tag-mother","tag-olivia-mansfield","tag-painter","tag-visual-artist"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26254"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29679,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26254\/revisions\/29679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}