We recently got the chance to visit artist Fran Giffard in her beautiful bird-filled studio, and have a chat about her creative process! Fran talked us through how she began the practice of painting in her diaries, her long-standing artistic inspirations, and what she's working on now!

 

 

 

How do you choose the pages of your diary to paint on?

I paint on every page; I like the birds to all communicate with each other, they all face inwards and acknowledge each other, and their colours harmonise.

 

Have you always just loved birds?

Yeah I have. It's like a small happy thing. I won a Blue Peter badge when I was younger for a poster design for Heathrow Airport's 50th anniversary, and I did birds landing. Although it's very different from what I do now, the emphasis on lines is similar. You can draw parallels between whatever you do and it's just really sweet to see that.

 

 

 

 

 

They must be so relaxing to paint.

They are and they aren't, but there's also nothing else I'd rather be doing.

 

What are the flowers in this piece (pictured)?

They’re clematis; I used to paint devotedly Clematis Armandii, the apple blossom varieties, they have such lovely shapes, but now it’s just more about having an interesting colour contrast, to work with the birds themselves.

 

Why do you paint in your diary?

When I was a student, I was given a Moleskine sketchbook, and I’m just so aware of how expensive they are, so I thought I’d do some practice ones in my diary because the paper quality is the same. I actually love the whole informality of it, arranging the birds between sections of handwritten text, and that’s what lots of people enjoy about my work, it’s a snapshot of the artist’s life as well as the actual painting itself.

           

 

Fran's Grandfather's stamp collection, which has provided inspiration for the colours and compositions of her ongoing print series

 

 

 

 

What are you working on right now?

For the next piece, I went to Kew gardens to paint the magnolias there, which were fantastic. I wanted to focus in on just one section of the colour wheel, like let’s just have red, white, pink, and a bit of purple. My instinct is always that we need to have the complimentary colour from the other side of the wheel, but with this I really want it to just be really focused and intense, and I think it’ll look great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Fran's available collection of work, please visit her artist page here.

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