When did you start your creative practice and why?
I began painting in 2019 soon after completing my PhD in Neuroscience, whilst I was still doing research on the visual part of the human brain. Painting landscapes gave me a way to connect with nature in a new and deeper way, allowing me to begin seeing the visual world around me as a mosaic of shapes, colours and tones. What started out as a fun hobby, soon became an obsession about capturing the light and mood of a moment in time. I became a full-time artist in 2023 after a self-imposed ‘100 Paintings in 100 Days’ challenge that then led to an Arts Council project grant focused on painting English farmland and farm animals.
Do you ever have creative blocks, how do you keep motivated?
I do not tend to struggle with creative block per se as I find there are always infinite subjects to paint both out in nature and in my own studio. However, the success of my paintings directly follows the ebbs and flows of my confidence as a painter. If I ever feel that I have fallen into a creative rut, I allow myself to just play and experiment again. Sometimes I will paint a subject that I have never painted before or switch to a different medium from my beloved oil paint, or set myself a challenge, such as painting under time pressure or upside down! Before I know it, I am back in the flow of it.
How does your immediate environment or location play in your work?
Most of my work is a reaction to my immediate surroundings, the time of day and the season that I am painting. I paint most of my landscape work en plein air so I am heavily influenced by the elements, weather and changing light conditions. With my paintings I aim to capture not only what is in front of me but also the feeling and mood of the place on that particular day.
What tools, materials, or techniques are essential to your practice? Is there a colour you just could not do without?
My absolute favourite medium is oils and I could not do without them. I paint in the “alla prima” method which means that I do not wait for layers of oil to dry, but rather layer wet paint on wet paint, aiming to finish a painting in one sitting if possible. As the paint stays wet throughout the process, I am able to create depth and energy by using thin paint in some areas and then caking thick paint in others, pushing different colours into one another. My work often has energetic brushstrokes and a feeling of immediacy, all thanks to the wonderful slow drying properties of oil paint.
There are no colours I couldn’t do without but I have a real soft spot for some Emerald
Green and try to sneak it into most of my paintings. Once you know that, you can spot it in my work.
If your work could evoke one feeling or reaction in viewers, what would it be?
My hope for my paintings is that they make people pause and find some mental quiet, if just for a moment. I find that painting is like a meditation for me where all other thoughts dissolve and I am able to immerse myself in shapes, colours and tones of the subject in front of me. I wish that viewers can find their own meditative moment in appreciating the landscape immortalised in paint.
What is your website and how do we find you on social media?
My website is greta@gretavilidaite.co.uk and my social media handle is: @gretavilidaite on both Facebook and Instagram.
