Artist interview: Yuting Wang, winner of the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2017

Yuting Wang is the Winner of the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2017 and won a solo exhibition at the Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, along with £3000 cash and a £500 voucher from Cass Art. We caught up with Yuting to ask her about her art, her medium and her materials… 

I am a painter and I always make sure I remind myself of this. I spend time researching ideas and then, by observing the places I’ve lived in and the people who have surrounded me begin to make my paintings. My work explores how subjectivity can affect how we remember seeing a landscape and how our emotional state will affect what specific details our memories will hold on to from an environment. I hope my landscapes can emanate an emotion that can be felt by the viewer. There is a lot of inspiration around me which results in a rich visual language.

I choose to use oil on canvas because it’s a transparent medium and is very stable once dry. Oil has been used in many versatile ways over the history of art and I like to explore these techniques in my own work. Oil paint allows me the biggest potential and it’s fascinating how diverse a style it can offer.

I had reached a point where I had completed a number of paintings that I felt expressed my ideas. I wanted to take the opportunity to submit them to a few prizes to begin putting my work out there, and hopefully start to add any successes to my CV. The Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize was one of those prizes and I’m really pleased I won. The Cass Art voucher I won as part of the award has meant I have been able to buy a number of new oil paints which will support me continuing my practice after my MA. The best part of the prize was the prize giving evening, I had a very supportive group of friends join and the support from the Prize itself was very encouraging.

Personally I like Michael Harding and Old Holland. Ultramarine blue and bright pinks are my favourite colours. 

I do also sometimes use acrylic paints for screen printing and collage. Using the right materials that are good quality definitely influences the quality and final effect of my paintings.

During my MFA at UAL Wimbledon College of Arts, I had the time and space to experiment with a wide range of ideas. They also taught me a more academic way to do research which was really helpful in supporting my development. Because artists all work in different ways depending on their practice, medium and own way of learning, I think one of the best bits of advice I can give is that it’s helpful to establish a structured way of working that you can stick to. It certainly helped me keep working consistently and sustainably across my course, it also helped me remain patient with myself and sensitive to what I was doing. I also think it’s worth reminding ourselves as artists to keep an open mind, look to different fields for inspiration and not be afraid to explore more unusual things. We need to keep asking ourselves what it is we care about and are concerned with. Do your research and work hard to find the answers to your questions, this way your practice can develop. 

Next I want to explore the relationship between the modern city and Chinese tradition through my paintings. I’m interested in how people live in these cities and how they feel about this. What is the reality of it and what traditional legends and fairy tales still persist in modern times. I’d like to aim to show these in my next solo show. 

 

You can learn more about the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2018, which is now open for entries until 14th January 2018, on the website here. 

See more of Yuting's work on the Emerging Artist Gallery website here.

Image credits: All images Yuting Wang © 

First image: Pond 

Second image: Daydream

Third image: Floating World 

Fourth image: Yuting Wang with her work Still Life