Q&A with Maddy Buttling
We were delighted to award Maddy Buttling the Mall Galleries Prize for Best Figurative Painting at last year’s Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize.
The prize is 8 Free Entries to Calls to Exhibit (worth £180), so we were excited to see what work Maddy would submit, and then keep our fingers crossed that it would be selected for exhibition by the Society’s Selection Committee.
We were very pleased to discover that Goodbye Mitsubishi! Was selected for the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition.
Goodbye Mitsubishi! Oil 16 x 21 cm £480
On an intimately small scale, Maddy's paintings ritualistically stalk household pets. She devotes herself to unironically deifying the ephemeral pet while observing the humour and tenderness of the relationship between human and animal. Goodbye Mitsubishi! bids farewell to a longstanding family car
We asked Maddy a few questions about her practice:
Past or present, what artist from the NEAC do you most admire? Why?
Gwen John (1876–1939). She paints small-scale interiors with cats!
Gwen John Girl with a Cat 1918–22 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
What is your favourite work in this year’s exhibition? Why?
I enjoyed On The Sofa by Max White. Within the fabric of the sofa I see the suggestion of a small black and white dog, but I think White is allowing you to see the things you want to see in this ambiguous picture of happy solitude.
Max White On the Sofa Oil 16 x 16 cm £300
What gallery did you first sell a work at?
My first gallery sale was at the RA Summer Exhibition 2020, it was a small painting of my deceased hamster called ‘Dead Pierre’.
Dead Pierre Oil on plywood 14 x 14 cm
Where do you produce your best work?
Being around my dog helps. I plan paintings through spontaneously taken photos on my phone. Usually in domestic spaces. Grief is also a huge influence, this idea of memorializing through the grandeur of oil paint. I really started painting when my childhood dog died.
What brand / paints make up your palette?
I mix a lot of colour so control and accuracy with my paint is important for me. I lean towards brands with a high pigment load, such as Michael Harding and the Winsor & Newton Artists’ line.
Do you have any rituals or routines when preparing and starting a painting?
Procrastination.
The New English Art Club Annual Exhibition runs from 25 June to 3 July 2021