In celebration the life of Kangaroo Island artist

Neil Sheppard

Also known as Shep who passed away Sept 2015

Jacqueline Coates shares an excerpt from a interview

with Neil Sheppard 2014 originally created for the Make Money From Art interview series where Neil generously donated his time and a chat to help students have an understanding of what it is to be a real life practising artists. Neil generously shared his time and insights with me at Salon Rouge during a visit where we shared some great information and had lots of laughs. You are missed already my friend.

J:    Hi, I am in my gallery Salon Rouge with a special guest today, Neil Sheppard, who is a fabulous and well known artist, with a dream lifestyle living on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Welcome, Neil.

N:    Hello, Jacqui.  It’s good to be here, seeing how you’re going and seeing what you’re doing lately.

J:    Neil often drops in to visit me and I absolutely love it. You tell me the story – why do you leave the island?

N:    Well, living on an island has its own issues. You tend to get island fever after a while. Well I do. I have itchy feet anyway, so I just need to get off the island for a few days at least once a month, just to see that there is another part of the world, and just to meet some other artists and maybe shoot a fox or two, all that sort of stuff.

J:    So, who do you shoot the foxes with? I know you’ve told me but it’s nice to share that story.

N:  I go to a friend’s place at Eudunda.  He owns the post office there, so we go out from there and help out some local farmers who have a problem with foxes.

J:  So earlier this week you dropped in to say hi, which is great and we always compare notes about how we’re going and what we’re up to. You were off to do the fox shooting then – how did you go? How many did you cull?

N:  Oh well, actually they were very hard to find this week so we only managed to get about five between us for three days, which was a very poor sort of effort.

J:     My e-mail must have gotten out to the foxes – ‘watch out’ (laughs).

N:  Yes, Jacqui, because we didn’t see any. They’re obviously all on the internet.

J:  They’re cunning little guys. So, you’re here at the moment. Where else do you go when you’re off the island? Do you visit any of the major galleries in town or do you give that a big bypass?

N:  No, I always like to go and see what’s on at the State Gallery in Adelaide. I often get out to a little town called Wilmington in the Flinders Ranges, because I have a protégé there I’m working with. I started working with him when he was ten. He had his first exhibition when he was fourteen. He’s now sixteen and selling a lot of work. His name is Joel Plevin. If you just Google ‘Plev’ you’ll see his work. Very much like my work was three or four years ago. Very successful. He sells generally about half of his work at openings which is really unheard of these days... for me, anyway (laughs).

J:    I definitely want to talk about how you’re ‘protegeing’ him, but I first of all want to make sure that my painters understand who you are. I first came across you when I rented a beautiful cottage right near the beach on Emu Bay about four years ago and some friends of mine flew in from Sydney, the kids ran amuck, it was great – we’d roll down on to the sand dunes. And the house was full of your early work. I kept thinking, ‘who is this “Shep”’? We were always going somewhere or doing something and with the spaces on Kangaroo Island – everything’s so spread out – we didn’t get to see your studio. I can’t believe we didn’t do that, so I’ve never been to your painting studio. I’m going to have to rectify that, aren’t I?

N:    You are, definitely.

J:    I can’t believe that. How many times have you been to mine?

N:    Oh, well, yours is easy. I just pass it every time I go out to a friend’s place.

J:    I’m delighted that you’ve bothered to slow down and make the connection with me. I really appreciate it, it’s lovely. That makes me regret even more than I haven’t been to your studio. But I felt like I was living in a ‘Shep’ studio in that house to be honest. There was probably about a dozen paintings of yours.

N:    Was it a place called ‘Beaches’?

J:    Yeah, it belonged to the Tretheweys.

N:    Yeah, they’re very big fans. They’re fans of yours, too, aren’t they? I think Susan’s actually done a course with you.

J:    She has done a course with me, yeah. So she’s probably been painting away down there. Actually I met two ladies from Kangaroo Island who came over a year ago and did some work with me and one’s not on the island anymore.

So, going back to your work, at that point in time from memory there were sailboat paintings with people in them. The people were quite simplified. I don’t think you’re working like that anymore. I did have a look in the gallery. Tell me about where the gallery is on Kangaroo Island.

N:    The gallery is on the road to Emu Bay, so about ten minutes from Kingscote on the North Coast Road, just off the bitumen. It’s well sign-posted, probably the best sign-posted place on Kangaroo Island. A lot of people who stay at Emu Bay come and visit us.

J:    So that’s the studio. You’ve actually got a shop gallery.

N:    We have a studio gallery at the same place.

J:    There was something in the main street...

N:    Oh, yeah, for a while there we experimented with a little outlet in the main street.

J:    No good?

N:  No, it works better from home, because I couldn’t be in the two places at once.

J:    You couldn’t put somebody on?

N:    Yeah, we could. But I just find that meeting the artists sells work.

J:    Isn’t that interesting, because that’s what I find too. If I’m here, the work sells because I guess people are having that conversation with the artist and they feel that they’re at the source, don’t they? They feel comfortable buying from them.

N:    They do.

J:    Well that’s what I think, but what are your reasons?

N:    I just think that they see that visiting your gallery and buying a painting from you is part of a package, whereas if they just buy a painting they’re only getting part of the package. I’m the same. If I met the artist I think I’d be more inclined to buy the painting.

J:    Yeah, especially when they’re quite big investments. Now, let’s talk about that. What’s your price range?

N:    Prices range from $300 through to $10,000, depending on size and...

J:    And you’re a quick painter, too.

N:    Yeah.

J:    It’s not really a secret but I love that whole thing – it’s taken a lifetime to paint like that but a painting might happen in a few hours. Are there any you go back and work on?

N:    Yes. I would do the bulk of a painting in one hit, and then possibly go back the next day and look at it in a different light and from a different perspective and work out another two or three things to touch up, which will make the painting a lot more alive.

J:    So, where can people see your work? They might want to quickly go on Google while they’re listening to this.

N:    You can go to www.shepstudio.com.au. That’s my website and there are several galleries in there. ‘Hot off the Easel’ is the stuff that’s been done in the last two weeks. Then there’s the serious stuff, which is the stuff I’m trying to get into the National Gallery. And there’s a gallery there which includes stuff available in print as well. It’s working really well.

J:    So, when you’ve got your ‘Hot off the Easel’, is that your quick prices as well – you’re more accessible prices, or is there not a price strategy with that?

N:    No, there are prices on them. It depends. I’m doing two sorts of paintings at the moment. One, which I call my ‘eye candy’, is the pretty stuff that people would buy to complement their carpet or couch or windows or whatever, and then I’m doing some stuff which comes from much deeper down, which is what I call my ‘serious stuff’ – paintings about depression or war. At the moment I’ve been doing a series about Aborigines doing things, like hunting. So, those paintings tend to be more highly priced. Even though I don’t sell them so much, I value them more because they don’t come easily.

J:    Yes, and it’s the true you. It’s sort of like your soul.

N:    It is.

J:    Not that the other stuff isn’t you. I’ve watched you paint in action. You’re amazing. Guys, this man is an amazing painter. I’ve told you about some of the early paintings, which are actually not like what he’s been painting over the last few years. He does these really beautiful landscape paintings. They are so free and so expressive and I know there are lots of people who try to copy him – this lovely Neil Sheppard. When you actually watch him paint, he is amazing. One of my groups was spoilt, because he turned up on one of his fox shooting sprees and came and visited the gallery and I happened to have a group of the girls here painting and I just dropped my schedule when he offered to do a demo for us and stood back and we just watched him at work. It was amazing. When you left they all had their eyebrows rearranged up in their hairline (laughs). They couldn’t believe it.

N:    That’s exciting.

J:    It is exciting. So you’re working with a gyprock slide, you had a couple of paint brushes and you sort of blocked things in as an overview. You were working pretty quickly and then you went down to your final tools and you had your few favourite brushes that you used to do different things. So, when we’re talking landscapes it could be a beautiful field with some hills in a different colour behind, or a great sky, and he just seems to whip up an atmosphere in the paintings that is hard to define. There might be a fence-line, a couple of posts. I think you have a few signature things that you do, which are almost like calligraphy. It’s like marking your signature – the way you do your handwriting comes through. In this case, it’s not handwriting, but how you paint. You have some things that might appear and you might use those things to construct your painting. You might put in one big ‘swoosh’ of colour. Your colour sense is great. Even though you might have a moody painting, there is always that beautiful zap of colour. I remember you working with turquoises and golds and yellows when you were here, as well as steely greys and things.

N:    Yeah, my favourite colours at the moment are turquoise and orange. They seem to go well together. But sure, it’s all about putting down some colours before you start painting. That’s the critical thing, to develop the whole atmosphere of the painting, and by putting down a layer of something dark – dark blues and stuff – then when you do a warm painting over the top of that it just makes the painting so much warmer and vice-versa. If you want a cool painting you put it over oranges. If you want a warm painting, you put it over blues. That works really well. It also gets rid of all that white canvas, which you don’t want. It also brings out some texture and that sort of stuff.

   In the last couple of months, I’ve just got too many paintings in my gallery. So when I feel the urge to paint, I just paint over something that’s sat there for the last twelve months and not sold so that all those previous colours and textures are lending something to the new painting, which is fantastic.

J:    And then you just put the price up, because it’s got double the richness.

N:    Yeah, that’s it. And when people get sick of that painting, they can peel it off and go to the one below it.

J:    Okay, so you’re working in acrylics mostly?

N:    Yes.

J:    So why is that? Tell us your story. What’s your philosophy?

N:    Okay. Now I only started painting fifteen years ago and I started painting with oils. But I’ve been battling cancer for the last fifteen years as well, so I figured that I was better off using something that was less dangerous for my health. I was getting headaches from the solvents, which would last for days and as soon as I switched to acrylics the headaches went away. So obviously there’s a link there. And I have hardly had a headache since those days.

   So, I’ve used acrylics for the last ten years. I love acrylics because they’re immediate. As you say I work very quickly, so I’m still working wet-on-wet even with acrylics, because the paint is still wet. But the beauty is that within three hours I can sell a painting – wrap it up and sell it – because it’s dry and ready to go. Whereas with oils, it was hanging around for months because if it’s on fairly thick like you paint, then it’s months.

J:    Mine’s ridiculous, it can be an inch or two thick...

N:    Yeah. It’s hard to move the painting to a buyer when it’s wet.

J:    Do you glaze your acrylic?

N:    No, I don’t use any glaze. I don’t use any mediums. I just use the paint straight from the tube, and water.

J:    What kind do you use? Liquitex?

N:    No, I don’t use Liquitex, I use Atelier Interactive. And I have been using a lot of Montmarte, which once upon a time was a cheap paint, but now it is as rich a texture and guaranteed as long a life as any of the more expensive paints.

J:    Is that the stuff you had in jars?

N:    In 200ml jars for ten dollars.

J:    I think that’s a better quality than what they’ve got in tubes. I’ve had a look at what they’ve got in tubes and I think they’re colours are a bit flat. The colours you had were very vibrant. They looked quite nice.

N:    Yeah, I love them. I think they’re great. And my paintings sell, so obviously they’re okay.

J:    And you’re generous with the amount that you slap on, too. So you might have some paint that you chuck out in the process, because you are picking it up in generous amounts. So that probably works well for you.

N:    It does. It’s important when you first start painting to just get over that thing of ‘I’ve got to be careful with the amount of paint I use’, because if that’s a big issue for you, you’re never going to experiment, you’re never going to learn what you’re capable of doing yourself.

J:    When I put together paints for my students, when I put together a full set of the Winsor & Newton which are the small tubes, the pigment is very powerful. And a full set of the colours we like to use for the Blooms painting methods comes to about $490, but once you’ve got them you really are set up. You just have to buy more black and more white.  And I find that a set of those will last me for the time and a half of a Blooms workshop, so we’re talking twenty-four paintings plus my demo pieces, so twenty-six paintings in a week. Plus I go into another session and it will take me halfway through. Yes, I may have to top up one or two tubes of really heavily plundered paint but those paints will just keep going and going. They stretch a long way because the pigment is so strong. I really think it depends on the person and what you’re doing. For what you’re doing, you can pick up that paint and you can throw it on. When I do my oils, I use Winton, which is a student quality by Winsor & Newton, so I feel I can freely squirt out those tubes. I can use a whole tube on one mark. I don’t feel bad about it because of the price. But I went to a designer paint shop and there were tubes for $150 and $300. I was like ‘oh my god’. That’s such a lot of money. I would probably be looking at $5,000 just for one painting if I use those. I think you have to find what works for you as an artist and for your style and what you’re going through. I’m surprised you don’t use any medium whatsoever.

N:    I’m too lazy.

J:    You’re too lazy? (laughs)

N:    Well it just slows down the process if you go to start adding mediums in.

J:    Yeah, you’re so spontaneous.

N:    I kind of think a painting has to be.

J:    Well I was talking to Natalie, who is a paint rep and an artist, who works for Winsor & Newton in Australia. She flew into the gallery and had a chat with me and she was saying that the reason most people use retarder mediums and things like that is because they paint too slow.  She said ‘just paint faster’.  Retarders actually really stuff up the construction of the paint and the molecules, and if you start using it in one area you have to use it right throughout. You can’t just suddenly change and not use it somewhere else.

N:   Okay.

J:    I thought that was fascinating. So, you do work quickly and you’re working wet on wet, so it’s perfect. I can’t see why you need it either.

N:    No.

J:    But I’m surprised, not even a glaze, though?

N:    No glazes, no. I’m just too lazy.

J:    Too lazy and successful (laughs).

N:    I could get my assistant to do it, but I don’t seem to need it.

J:    Okay, I have some juicy areas I need to ask you about. You’ve got an assistant. How does this work?

N:    Our assistant comes in one day a week and she will process my new paintings. Processing means she will photograph it, put the wire on it, catalogue it in the written catalogue and then upload it onto the database which is ACDC, which is a great database. From there she will upload it onto the website.

J:    What’s ACDC? Is it a visual database?

N:    Yeah, it’s a visual database.

J:    Is that open to everybody?

N:    You purchase it. It’s not expensive. I’ve been using it for the last few years. It’s got all my work on there. There are probably some good free ones out there now.

J:    Can the public access the work?

N:    On the database, no. But they can access them from the website. The image goes on to the website from the database. Basically everything is tidied up, cleaned up, dropped, colour-balanced, resized, ready for the website.

J:    And she does all that?

N:    She does all of that.

J:    So you’re free to paint or go and shoot foxes, basically?

N:    Basically.

J:    Or come and chew the fat with me and eat fudge. It was beautiful chocolate fudge.

N:    It was lovely.

J:    We haven’t finished that yet.

N:    (Laughs) I don’t think we will.

J:    So, who does your sales when you’re not there?

N:    My wife runs the gallery when I’m not there.

J:    And she does a good job?

N:    Yeah.

J:    What’s your wife’s name?

N:    My wife’s name is Elizabeth.

J:    So, if you go to the studio you may either meet Neil or Elizabeth.

N:    That’s right. Or Julie, if we’re both away. But usually one of us is there. So Julie is the assistant, from France. A little bit of an unusual way of speaking English. She’s very nice. Loves the work and has no trouble selling it.

J:    She’s the same one who does the photographing.

N:    Yes. She’s good. And my wife has a banking background so she’s quite happy to do all the wages and taxation and deal with the money side of things. I just have to ask how much money is in the account. So she looks after the money. I look after the painting, talking to people. What I’ve had to do more of in the last couple of years is commission work.

This interview is an excerpt from a series of artist interviews created for the students of the Make Money From Art Program where practising artists have agreed to share their knowledge about what it is to be a self supporting artist. No part of this interview may be reproduced with written permission from Jacqueline Coates and also the approval of Liz Sheppard. 2015.