Brighton’s Arty: Alison Krog

Hidden Depths

It’s Artwave later this month. And what better way to get you excited about Lewes’s annual visual arts festival than to write about one of our favourite painters, who will be opening her studio once again this year. We first met Jessica Zoob in 2010. And the close encounter with her vast canvases – often the result of years’ of work – is something we’ll never forget.
Jessica’s earliest passion was the theatre, and her first career theatre design. “I think that’s why I’m constantly craving to do huge, huge things,” she says. Perhaps it also explains the internal dimensions to her art: the hidden depths that are only to be expected when you realise how relentlessly she works: layering and scraping back oils on canvas – again and again… and again.
“They have maybe 20 or 30 layers,” says Jessica. “And you can’t have every layer perfect because then you’d never want to lose it. They’re there so you can discover them. I work on about 20 pieces at a time because each layer has to be flat to dry. By the time I’ve got to the 20th I can go back to the first and it’s ready for the next layer. But it’s so scary if you get it wrong. You spend years getting to the final stage and then the last layer might just mess it up.”

Jessica’s compulsion is to create paintings that “don’t look painted”. Instead, her works appear almost organic – like they have been formed out of rock or the marks on a pebble. It’s an incredibly slow process, as the artist endeavours to achieve something that just doesn’t look forced or overworked. And it’s impossible to appreciate the results without viewing first-hand their textures and tones. Jessica says she wants to give people “something that doesn’t give away everything at first”. If you spend time looking at the layers, you’ll see different things. It’s a soothing, calming experience that you really shouldn’t miss.
Artwave runs from 22 August to 6 September weekends.
Twitter @brightonsarty