Leah Hewson is an abstract artist who works in layers of complex patterns, in vibrant neon colours. She studied in DunLaoghaire College of Art and Design. She has exhibited extensively, including solo exhibitions in the RHA and Hillsboro. Fine Art. She has had residencies in New York, LA Berlin and Dublin. She has won several awards, including the Whites award for painting in the RHA. Her work is in many public collection and has also been auctioned at Sotheby’s.
Excerpt from Éadaoin Glynn’s interview with Leah Hewson in The Warrior Artist Podcast [episode 30]
Leah interned with Sean Scully in New York which was had a transformative impact on her practice.
“I was at a real crux of my personal creative journey at that point, because, I had become quite jaded by what I was making. I felt like my own work wasn’t resonating. I was still working with the figure at the time, and I was looking for a way to stay in creativity and in the art world, but maybe.. thinking about working for an artist, or working with a gallery, or something like that. So all of these things were up in the air, and I got the opportunity to work for Sean, and actually that experience for me moved me directly into abstraction, because I didn’t really understand abstract art up until that point, you know, so it was quite transformational for me creatively, and that that’s what pulled me back into making art, and me realising that I actually it’s crucial for me to be creative for my existence. I know that sounds like very dramatic, but it was amazing observing somebody at the top of their game who still, you know, has gone so far.”
Leah finds collaborations enables her to give up control and fuel her creativity. “You learn something new every time, about people, about process, and about your own ability and about yourself. ..They seem to bring just the right amount of challenge every time. And the game is to keep rising to the challenges, you know, and not be too comfortable.”
She enjoys working in a variety of mediums: “I do love mixing it up, like, if I’m painting for too long.. my energy will drop a little bit. I’m somebody who doesn’t have a lot of patience, so I like to, kind of, yeah, jump around a bit”
Leah loves the process of painting: “There’s a certain kind of process that occurs with that the painting is always something that that is kind of home, [it] brings me back to myself, because it’s pure expression…it’s actually good for my heart.”
Leah describes her painting process as ” very intense..I generally work on, like, how many paintings do I have in here? Six paintings on the go at the moment, and because I’m trying to get into flow state. And because I use spray paint and acrylics, and I use spray paint and acrylics because they dry fast also, you know, so that I can keep moving around the studio, and there’s not too much time for thinking or analysing. So it’s a very fast paced, intense experience. And during the week, I might only be able to manage like, one full day of painting, or one or two full days of painting for that reason. But I’ll get loads done in those days. There’ll be highly productive days.”
Leah describes her intuitive process: “There’s no decision…the way that I work is I have no idea what it’s going to look like from the beginning to the end. And I think that’s why there’s so many layers.”
The challenge of not overworking and accepting the process: “if I look at some of the paintings that I’ve done, there is always a point in them where I’ve gone too far….I know that point, but it’s …about that not being a negative thing, you know? It’s like, it’s just that it exists the way it exists now, you know, it’s neither right nor nor wrong.”
Leah avoids the trap of remaining within her comfort points in mark making: “the soft line and the neon light..I’ve fallen into a bit of a trap where they are becoming the anchor on the finishing point for a lot of the work…that’s something that I’m trying to move away from. I’m trying not to get too comfortable with that.”
Leah’s work is inspired by the subconscious dream state and aims to work within the state of unconscious, the flow state, the dream state, which makes up 95% our brain activity. When did you become interested in this area as a point of inspiration? “Why do I have this need to be creative? ..I absolutely hate being an adult. I hate adulting, and I was like, you know, kind of trying to stay in this space of like being imaginative and expressing myself and being creative.”
Leah describes how she prepares to get into the flow state: “if I’m painting or doing a task, I don’t like to finish it at the end of the day, so I can start the day in the middle of something..music is really important. I listen to a lot of music, and primarily tech.. electronic music, something that has, repetitive beats that stay at a certain rhythm…I put the the noise canceling headphones on, and sure you’re gone for an hour or two, even sometimes, because they’re mixes. So they keep you in that space. I find it really energising if I find a new mix that I really love listening to when you’re working.”
Leah doesn’t write down her ideas “I don’t have any notebooks or very few. I’m firm believer in if an idea is good enough, you’ll remember it, one of my main goals of being an artist is to just keep expressing myself, you know, and and trying to be creative in the purest sense possible.”
However, she is also focused on the importance of articulating her practice in writing “because I’ve had such high output for the last couple of years, my conceptual concerns have sort of been left at the side, and I’m feeling itchy just kind of focus on them for a little bit.. into putting what you’re doing into words, even though it’s really challenging and difficult, sometimes ..it’s important to do, I think, because it really solidifies your idea of where you’re at.”
Leah primarily funds her practice through commercial commissions: “I’ve had people come in who tell me their whole life story, who tell me what they would prefer the painting to be about, which is good but but I also, in return, say to them, I will take all of this on board, and then I will, like, have your story in my head, you know, over a period of time, but then whatever happens after that, I don’t, I can’t tell you what’s going to come out of that, you know. .. generally, people respect my process. .. they come to me trusting the process too. And then I have people coming in just going, I really want a painting of yours. Like, do whatever you want. This is the size, you know, it can be something like that. Or, you know, had one recently where they didn’t like a specific colour, so they wanted that left out. And actually, that was a really interesting. A lesson for me, because I felt that was too much of a constraint.”
Leah recently had a painting auctioned Sothebys London: “It was a proud moment. It was nerve wracking to see the actual auction go on online. It kept going, refresh, refresh…I was happy with where it ended. ..it was definitely a milestone achievement”
On choosing to work outside of the gallery structure: “I was with a gallery for a couple years, and ..it’s got its benefits, for sure. I do think the structure of exclusivity, is a little bit obsolete at this point. ..because I’ve been doing my work, had moved into collaborations and outside work, outside of the gallery context, ..I felt like there wasn’t much need to necessarily be involved so directly with the gallery. ..I still have a good relationship with the with the gallerist, and we both agreed that, like, if the opportunity comes up for me to show a work here or there, then, you know, that’ll be great. ..But it took me a very long time to have that conversation, because, again, I was like, how do, how do I, how do I have this conversation, you know? And also the fear of, of, like, potentially losing something that is, you know, you know that you’re attached to as well. It’s like, kind of going out into the big bad world, not knowing where you’re going.”
Leah works with Stoney Road Press who manage a lot of the administrative side of her commissions: “They’re art dealers, and they look after framing, and they do installing and hanging of work as well. So they kind of, they cover a broad spectrum of things to do with art consultation.”
Leah’s Dad gave her the following advice: “He always says a dumb priest never got a parish. So in other words, if you want something, ask for it…What I’ve learned over the years is that women, women tend to ask for permission..I recently read a thing that Steve Jobs had said, the difference between a dreamer and a doer is somebody who picks up the phone.”
Her advice for artists: “really try and think about your authenticity..I think that’s really where you have to make work from, is your authentic place, and not worry. The most important thing, I think, is being authentic to yourself, as as a as a creator, whatever that looks like, and actually trying to find your true voice.”
“Sometimes you have to do something for at least ten years before it begins to pay off..if you can stick with something for ten years.., then it’s really going to be solidified..My mantra used to be, persistence is the key. If you keep persisting at what you’re doing, it will eventually pay off. There’s no doubt about it, if you’re persistent and authentic, it’ll eventually pay off.”
“I’ve definitely realised that that’s those are two key things that I’ve learned so far in my creative journey. And you’ll eventually come to the top of the hill, and then you’ll be able to kind of cruise down, and then, you know, you might get another hill down the way, yeah. And I think that’s where I have to keep being disciplined with coming in and stuff, because, I mean, it’s such a precarious industry, and it’s so up and down.”
The importance of discipline: “why it works for me is that everything around being creative can be really chaotic. ..there can be chaos around me.. if I know I’m coming in Monday to Friday, nine to five, even if I don’t feel like it, even if I don’t do much in the day, if I turn up and even sweep the floor, then that’s still moving forward.”
Leah applies for residencies “I need space and time to regroup and really sort of think about what’s, what are the important elements of, of what I’m trying to say, and how I can push the concept forward.. if you’re uncomfortable about something, then that’s what you really have to lean into”
Working with murals requires more planning than her intuitive painting process: “the one that I did recently on the Stoney road press building,..that was worked out within an inch of its life, like we laid out a whole grid and ..drew out what was in the concept.”