Reminiscing Romanticism

Gallery Extreme hosts a new exhibition called ‘Reminiscencias’, featuring the works of emerging artist Josephine Schmidt alongside other supporting visual student artists.

In ‘Reminiscencias’, The half-Thai and half-Danish painter, who has previously curated three exhibitions within Bangkok and London, focuses on the themes of love, trauma, and grief through romantic landscapes. The artist finds inspiration in the styles of abstract expressionism, fine art, impressionism, and surrealism.

I spoke to painter Josephine Schmidt at the exhibition’s opening night on Saturday, which also included live performances from rising East London artists TCP, UNICA, TheGhoodBoys, Eboni, and Lickz.

‘A Sailor’s Limerence’ is a Seascape by Josephine that represents the hope of finding love, after experiencing trauma and loss. Josephine says “the idea of love is something that humans have been fantasizing over for centuries, but sometimes love isn’t as simple as caring for someone, It can be complex, scary, and can become toxic.”

Like a sailor embarking on his quest into the sublime wildness and the unpredictability of the sea, this oil painting asks us to explore our own strength, courage, and faith for a better future, and for healthy relationships after the experiences of loss, and grief. This Seascape, alongside Josephine’s other works, owns many elements within the Romantic Art and literary movement and portrays our own emotive journeys of self-discovery and self-love. ‘A Sailor’s Limerence’ can also resemble the idea of couples finding each other and starting something new.

When did you start painting?

I grew up in a family of creatives. I grew up with paintings and sculptures all around my house, which I thought was normal. I only realised how into art my family really was when I would go to other people’s houses. I’ve been painting since I was really young. My dad was an art collector, and all my brothers and sisters are in the industry somehow, and we are all really passionate about art. I painted with my Dad for as long as I can imagine. We would have watercolour sessions every weekend. Art is something I always knew I was passionate about and the only thing I’ve truly loved my whole life.

Which artists do you love?

I love so many different kinds of artwork. Thai art really inspires me because I grew up with it in Thailand, and it is part of my culture, and so does Danish art. I would say that my favourite artists are Turner, Salvador Dalí, and Gustav Klimt. I am inspired by Turner the most because I think his style resembles mine the most.

What inspires your art ?

What inspires me is when I travel and see a lot of beautiful natural landscapes and I kind of just lay there and admire the landscape for a while. I will have the urge to paint it or create something based on it and it won’t be an exact copy but it will be a similar formation or pieces that are inspired by it.

I am also someone who is not as expressive in emotions within everyday life, particularly more negative ones such as sadness, and grief. The best way I express these emotions is through my art. A lot of people say that they can find some of my pieces haunting or like there’s a sad feeling, or a melancholy feeling, or a really loving feeling, and that is because Art is how I express or channel my emotions, I can’t cry so when I am sad, I’ll go paint and you can tell that from my work.

In my seascape painting ‘Memories of golden moments’, I wanted to capture the emotions of a special moment in time that lives in my heart and memory. It was from my trip to Spain, and it was while I viewed the sunset and reminisced on my time with my father when he was alive.

My Dad passed away when I was 14 and it was his dream to become an artist and he never did that. I always wanted to become one and I wanted to become one also for him. That was when everything really skyrocketed for me, and when I started really committing to my craft. I sold my first painting when I was 16 for like £600 which was crazy to me and made me so excited. I learned to never undervalue my work. If people like your work, no matter how old you are, they will buy it.

What does your creative process look like?

A lot of my landscape paintings are based on Spanish sea caves, landscapes, beaches, or Thai mountains and beaches just because they’re the two countries I visit the most, Spain is beautiful and my family is from Thailand. I see what I am inspired by and then take photos on my film camera, I don’t create an exact copy from the image, but I will get some formations and ideas out of it and will have my own spin around it.

How long do your pieces take to create?

For some pieces it’s very short, like two, three, or four days. If I am happy with the first initial two layers, as well as the colours then it will be easy from there. But some pieces can take months, it just really varies. I was never satisfied with the colours in the paintings of the sea caves, it was a piece that was inspired by sea caves in Ibiza Spain. Even though the shape was right, I just kept changing the colours over and over again. The background went from pink to red to yellow to blue to yellow again and to blue again and then to yellow again and I became happy with the yellow and that was the final outcome.

What are your goals as an artist?

My goal is to have people know my name in the Art Industry. I don’t want to be famous on TikTok or Instagram or anything like that. I just want to be recognised within the art community. I would love for my work to end up in a museum and have it seen in hundreds of years’ time. I want to have my own gallery by the time I am 25.

My mum is actually building a gallery in Thailand right now, where we can exhibit our family’s collection of art and I could potentially sell my work there. I want to see how that goes first so that I can learn from any mistakes and work for my mum for a while. In the near future, I am looking to do more solo exhibitions, I have already found some gallery spaces in Mayfair. I love Shoreditch but I want to explore other places in London, and I think Mayfair is an area where I could target a good audience, so that’s what is coming up next for me.

The ‘Reminiscencias’ exhibition invites us to explore our own memories. Schmidt’s romantic landscapes invite us to reminisce on our own good and bad experiences of love, trauma, or grief. Gallery Extreme, Morrell House, 11-15 March, 12-6pm.