Sofia Luiz Brightwell: Gestures of Love and Care

Sofia Luiz Brightwell gained a Jackson’s Selection Award in Jackson’s Artwork Prize this 12 months together with her work Boiled Eggs and Different Tender Acts. On this interview, she discusses the creative affect of her childhood in Brazil, the enjoyment of ragged, ‘crunchy’ brushes, and the way making artwork was a secure area in an amazing time of grief.

Above picture: Sofia in her studio

Josephine: Might you share the story of the way you grew to become an artist and inform us extra about your creative background?

Sofia: My paternal grandmother was an artist, and so was her father. She used to color watercolours of flowers in an virtually illustrative model, a sensibility she appeared to share together with her father, my great-grandfather. Yearly, he would make one thing he known as the ‘Brightwell Chronicles’, a newspaper/comedian of tales and occasions from that 12 months, with illustrations and hand-written captions, handed out on Christmas Day. My household has a group of round 30 of those chronicles.

Every time my father’s household would go to us in Brazil, they might convey a suitcase stuffed with presents, usually full of youngsters’s books and artwork provides. I keep in mind receiving a packet of pastels and being completely in love with the colors, and pissed off with how they smeared. That is my earliest reminiscence of working with a fabric that felt ‘noble’, and there was one thing so completely validating in being allowed to make use of such grown-up supplies.

Rising up, artwork was at all times part of our lives, however not essentially within the conventional paint-and-brush sort of approach. I spent the primary 9 years of my life on a small island in Southern Brazil, with two considerably bohemian mother and father who usually hosted events and dinners at our house. There have been folks from all walks of life at these gatherings, every part from my father’s soccer mates to my mom’s educational colleagues. It was a house full of dialogue, music, laughter, dancing, and a number of languages. And the very best evenings have been these the place we’d stroll all the way down to the bay and finish the night time dipping our toes into the nice and cozy water, the lights of town unfold out earlier than us. Being uncovered to the vibrancy of the encompassing nature of Southern Brazil, and to the various teams of individuals my mother and father would host, I’d say was the beginning of my artwork training.

We then moved to England after I was 9, and adapting to the properness of English tradition wasn’t the best of transitions after such a carefree childhood. Like most artists, I didn’t excel in typical topics, aside from artwork, which felt like one of many few areas the place I didn’t really feel invisible or common. It was significantly round age 14 that I really began pondering of myself as an artist, versus simply making artwork, thanks largely to the artwork curriculum at my college, and a superb artwork trainer who uncovered me to such a wealth of assorted artists.

Josephine: What does a typical working day within the studio seem like for you? Do you’ve got any necessary routines or rituals?

Sofia: The very first thing I do after I get to the studio is change my garments. I can’t inform you the variety of garments I’ve ruined with oil paint, and I do know that even when I don’t paint that day, I’ll get oil on me someway.

I’m an extremely messy and expansive painter, however equally, mess can actually annoy and overwhelm me. So as soon as I’ve a cup of tea in hand, I start tidying and rearranging the area, which has likely been left considerably untidy from my final go to. I then start engaged on whichever portray is probably the most resolved, doing one thing straightforward like filling in a blocked-in background or a fast wash, which helps me heat up.

I like engaged on a number of artworks on the similar time, that means there shall be a number of palettes on the go and a mountain of paintbrushes unfold throughout the area. Transferring between totally different work helps me to not overthink any single one, and consequently, get pissed off.

Josephine: Which supplies or instruments may you not reside with out?

Sofia: A very scratchy and considerably ragged brush. I discover the crappier and extra rugged the comb, the higher and extra attention-grabbing the stroke. I’ve some actually clean artificial brushes that apply paint in a silky, stable approach, that are a pleasure to make use of, however the result’s an completely boring, untextured stroke. My favorite brush is one I imagine I inherited from my grandmother’s assortment, and the easiest way I can describe it’s ‘crunchy’!

Josephine: Do you’re employed from a reference? Inform us extra about your course of.

Sofia: I’d say most of my work begin from a picture I’ve come throughout that speaks to my space of analysis. I spend numerous time scouting for archival photographs of Southern Brazil and pre-war Europe, and I’m significantly drawn to photographs of ladies in home and agricultural contexts. What fascinates me is how the lifetime of a rural lady might be so related throughout such totally different locations, be it Southern Italy or Brazil; there’s a grit, endurance, and love, but in addition an exploitation that runs by way of all of those photographs.

However the photographic picture solely takes me to date. Textiles are additionally a big a part of my analysis, informing the patterns I need to function in a portray, but in addition my color palette. And generally, as with the art work I submitted for the Jackson’s Artwork Prize, the textile turns into the floor for the portray itself.

Josephine: Do you often draw or preserve a sketchbook? If that’s the case, how does this inform your work?

Sofia: In all honesty, no. When my work was extra illustrative and drawing-based, a sketchbook was extremely current in my life. Now, nonetheless, I way more take pleasure in doing fast research of potential artworks on gessoed paper. These are sometimes unfastened and fast and assist me perceive if the composition is working or if the color palette wants adjusting. That mentioned, I do nonetheless, really feel that the easiest way is at all times to try to work the art work as I’m going. One in every of my favorite work, known as Braço de Polenteira (Polenta Making Arms), was the results of infinite trial and error, of portray and erasing. It gave the work an excessive amount of depth and layering, virtually like a palimpsest of makes an attempt. A part of what attracts me a lot to the work of somebody like Andrew Cranston is that unapologetic spontaneity to his portray, like a patchwork of makes an attempt that lead to one thing completely singular.

Josephine: Have you ever ever had a interval of stagnation in creativity? If that’s the case, what helped you overcome it?

Sofia: I’d say that probably the most fertile creative durations of my life was paradoxically one of many worst. I used to be in my early twenties, coping with the grief of dropping my mom, and the tragedy of dropping her so younger, paired with the belief of getting to face life with out an important determine in my life, felt completely overwhelming. Making artwork wasn’t a lot a refuge as an emotionally secure area to discover that ache. I keep in mind coming house from my shift on the pub at 11:30 pm and spending hours drawing and writing, producing a lot that I keep in mind it beginning to unfold all around the flat.

Wanting again, I believe that interval created an thought in my thoughts {that a} fruitful creative follow needed to come from a spot of extraordinarily deep emotional states. Which means that as I slowly healed from that grief, I discovered myself producing much less and virtually feeling like I used to be tapped out of concepts.

After that, it was a superb few years earlier than I managed to color with any consistency. I wouldn’t essentially name it a rut, only a shift in expression, and through that point, writing and images got here to the foreground of my work. I believe in case you’re feeling caught or if one thing isn’t flowing, experimenting with one thing outdoors of your typical follow may help jangle a caught cog.

Josephine: Are there any particular artists or mentors who’ve impressed you?

Sofia: I had at all times identified about Louise Bourgeois and her work. Nevertheless it wasn’t till I noticed a present of hers on the Tate as a young person and later learn a guide on her by Ulf Küster that I really understood how good she was. What drew me to her work was how deeply she mined her recollections of childhood and household, and the way her follow had this freedom of expression throughout a number of supplies, which, although very various, felt related. It was the primary time I had actually paid consideration to how brutality and fragility may sit and converse throughout the similar art work, and it actually touched me.

Later, in direction of the tip of my graduate diploma, I got here throughout the artist Cassi Namoda, whose work nonetheless conjures up me to at the present time. Her explorations of Lusophone Africa, and of how an upbringing formed by a number of cultures can inform our imaginative and prescient of the world, translated so many layers of what it’s to take a look at one’s personal tradition by way of each an insider and an outsider lens. There may be tenderness, longing, ecstasy, critique, affection, and ambiguity in her work, and it repeatedly makes me query my very own follow, and the way a number of layers of that means might be evoked by representing much less relatively than extra.

Josephine: What have been you fascinated with or exploring on the time you made Boiled Eggs and Different Tender Acts? What impressed it, and the way did it come to be?

Sofia: Folks usually suppose my work is just about meals, however what it’s actually exploring is how care is manifested. I painted this shortly after transferring to Lisbon, feeling barely homesick for my household and the comforts of house. I wished to experiment with portray on totally different surfaces, and since this was meant to be a examine, I painted immediately onto the material. The best way the material absorbed the paint in these first few layers jogged my memory of how butter melts into toast, so I made a decision to use the paint as thickly as I’d butter my toast: generously.

The portray may be very small, measuring 15.5 x 15.5 cm, and I wished to depict a easy but deeply affectionate act: somebody handing me a plate of boiled eggs. Everybody has their specific approach of taking their eggs, and their toast, and there may be an intimacy in understanding that – in serving somebody precisely what they like. What I used to be fascinated with when portray this was how pretty it’s to be beloved and brought care of, and the way that may be expressed within the easiest of acts, corresponding to passing a plate of meals.

Josephine: What made you submit this piece to Jackson’s Artwork Prize?

Sofia: I’ve at all times been extremely shy about sharing my work past my very own networks, and I suppose I’ve had a self-sabotaging behavior of pondering ‘this gained’t get by way of anyway’. Once I utilized for the prize, it was simply after a small exhibition I took half in in Porto. It wasn’t wherever significantly fancy, however I made a decision to go for it and attend the opening. Midway by way of the opening, I sat down in the course of the gallery to learn the programme, and located myself inside earshot of a few younger individuals who have been standing in entrance of my work, commenting on it. They didn’t know I used to be the artist, and have been speaking freely and brazenly and in a extremely constructive, engaged approach. It gave me a lot confidence that I assumed, ‘What the hell, let’s apply for this prize.’ So thanks to these strangers, they gave me the braveness to enter, and consequently win the Jackson’s Selection Award.

Josephine: Is there significance within the cloth the work is painted on? Have you ever used this blended media method earlier than in your work?

Sofia: I’ve at all times related flannel with the UK. It very a lot jogs my memory of pyjamas and my British grandmother’s home. I had began noticing that patterned cloth was a recurring theme in my work and within the work that attracted me. And I stored my work, feeling like they lacked a contemporary take. I used to be engaged on actually low cost, flimsy canvases that will bounce with each brushstroke, and I stored pondering I ought to simply strive stretching my very own. So I went to the material store to purchase canvas, and on the way in which, got here throughout so many materials I wished to purchase as an alternative. I immediately had the thought: why not stretch certainly one of these onto the body? So I did.

The material speaks to domesticity, which is a continuing theme in my work. I’ve been experimenting with totally different materials ever since, exploring how various textures have an effect on the way in which paint goes on, the way it absorbs, and the way they relate to the picture I’m depicting. I believe equally to how I’m making use of my paint in thick strokes, which evokes a want to eat it, utilizing materials that even have a very tactile nature is an try to evoke the sense of contact.

Josephine: What emotions do you hope folks take away from your work?

Sofia: Every time I take a look at certainly one of Bonnard’s or Vuillard’s work, I really feel a way of recognition. It isn’t essentially as a result of I’ve been to these areas, however as a result of I’ve felt what these areas are like: a sun-drenched eating room and the actual silence simply earlier than dinner is delivered to the desk, or the dimness of a comfortable front room, warmed by the presence of a determine quietly occupying the area, studying or stitching. I hope that when folks take a look at my work, they don’t essentially discover recognition within the topic of the picture, however within the intention behind the act – remembering, hopefully, fond recollections of how love and care manifested in their very own lives, and the subtlety of these gestures.

Josephine: Are there any new methods or concepts you’re excited to discover utilizing the supplies out of your prize?

Sofia: I’ve ordered some tempera paints, which I’m very excited to experiment with, because the final time I used them was after I made my very own throughout my undergraduate diploma. I’ve additionally ordered some pastels, impressed by Chantal Joffe’s pastel work, but in addition by that earliest reminiscence of being gifted a set by my grandparents.

Josephine: How did it really feel to maneuver by way of the phases of the competitors and win a Jackson’s Selection Award?

Sofia: I stored obsessively checking my emails because the announcement date approached, and when the information got here that I had gained the Jackson’s Selection Award Prize, I used to be elated!

Josephine: What’s developing subsequent for you?

Sofia: I’m presently finishing my Grasp’s in Portray in Portugal, which I’ll full subsequent 12 months, and the analysis element of which can turn out to be a solo exhibition. I’m slowly and deliberately constructing my exhibition follow, and I’m so excited to be displaying my work within the UK for the primary time on the Bankside Gallery with Jackson’s. I additionally proceed to run my publication, Cozinha da Saudade, by which I write about artwork, meals, and life.

Observe Sofia on Instagram

Additional Studying

Jackson’s Artwork Prize 2026 First Prize Winner Introduced

Meet Eleanor Johnson, Winner of Jackson’s Artwork Prize 2025

How We Collaborate With Artists

Skilled Recommendation on Making Your Method as an Artist

Store Oil Portray on jacksonsart.com