Q & A with Georgia Hayes

You can see more of Georgia's great paintings here: http://www.georgiahayes.com/about/

The Rebel: Can you remember the first painting you ever made?

Georgia Hayes: “Satisfying my obsession with horses and the smell of oil paint I used a model of a horse and a wine glass and some fruit.  I was trying for Rembrandt.  Lots of dark colour and highlights.  I didn’t finish it but it is encouraging to see I have got better.”

Which writers and poets inspire you?

“Lewis Carol, Gertrude Stein, Bachelard's Poetics of Space, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley - WH Auden, Seamus Heaney,  T.S. Eliot, Dostoyevsky,  Thomas Hardy's poems, Barry Schawabsky, Rumi, Thomas Mann. Marian Milner.” 

Do you agree with this statement by Delmore Schwartz: "Existentialism means that no one can take a bath for you." 

“I agree as long as you shut the bathroom door but maybe if you leave the door open you could at least share the bath water.”

Do you suffer from existentialist angst?

“No longer but I remember.”

Does painting make you happy and/or make you feel in control?

“Happy when it is going well, miserable otherwise.  When I feel in control I end up feeling bad as the painting comes out looking crafty and boring. It’s not easy to give up control.”

What's the best exhibition you've seen this year?

“Tal R at the Camden Arts Centre (I think that was this year) also Cranach and Rose Wylie here and there.”

Who are your favourite comedians / who makes you laugh?

“South Park, Eddie Izzard, Monty Python, Steve Bell, Ben Elton, Fawlty Towers.”  

Which do you know more about - Islam or The Rolling Stones?  

“About the same amount which means that I know too much about the Stones and almost nothing about Islam.”  

Do you relate to this quote by Willem de Kooning, "I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art."?

“Not really, sometimes I know its art but nobody comes in and says anything.”

What is your favourite art gallery or museum and why? 

“The British Museum because I like the variety of stuff from such a wide range of countries and times.  The National Gallery because it is full of wonderful paintings - I had a book of them when I was a child, so it was like meeting old friends, some of which I still like and others I only got to know since I came to visit.  The Prado because it has Las Meninas and other great Velasquez paintings.  N.Y. Met for the Papua New Guinea figures downstairs. I like Tate Britain for the buildings interior but miss the old pre-Tate Modern hang.  The things I hate about modern museums are the buzzing mechanical guides, the amount of wall space given to info and the crowds standing reading.”