Creating joy with colour

Geelong artist Steph Chapman surrounds herself with colour, and first picked up a paintbrush after a health diagnosis in 2019.

The challenging news of a complicated heart condition and the procedures that followed led her to further explore her creative and artistic side.

To help with anxiety stemming from her diagnosis, Chapman was encouraged by her psychologist to try a hobby and give something a go.

“It was a really scary time; I’d found out that I had this awful genetic condition, and I felt like I was going to drop dead at any moment,” she said.

“I just on a whim was like ‘Painting, I’ll give that a crack’ and it kind of saved me in a way.”

 

Chapman describes her style as “clashy colours and abstract florals,” creating works that are filled with colour and spread happiness, generally done on canvas or paper.

Given her passion about the use of colour, it’s no surprise it features predominantly in the majority of her pieces and is central to her work.

“Surrounding yourself with colour that calls for you is good for the soul,” Chapman said.

She said she would not have been able to describe her style when she first started painting and thought it was “quite nonsense”, although people liked it and bought it.

 

Her style has since evolved and over the years she’s tried different things to mix it up.

“I’ve tried painting more neutral tones as trends changed but I do find myself often gravitating towards big, bold, clashy colour.

“I just find it evokes more joy and painting for trends never really got me anywhere, but painting from the heart, it’s just more rewarding.

“People who have purchased my artworks send me messages, from time to time they’ll pop into my DMs and say ‘I love walking into my lounge room and just seeing this big bright happy piece.’

“I like this idea that this material piece can actually bring someone genuine happiness, I think that’s quite a powerful thing.”

 

Chapman’s work is inspired by wanting to create things that bring joy and make people happy to look at.

There normally isn’t a plan she follows when sitting down to paint, and she just sets out to create something she likes looking at.

Keeping her artworks quite open, she paints intuitively and follows where it takes her, saying the creative process is the fun part.

“Things don’t work out as well when I try to put a strategy behind it,” she said.

“The only thing I might have a general idea of is what kind of colours I think might be central.

“That’s pretty much the only guiding principle that I have behind me and then everything else, I’ll just see where it takes me.”

 

With a paintbrush in her hand, Chapman said it’s almost like meditation, turning to the tools when she felt anxious.

“When you’re painting, everything else disappears, there’s no anxiety, no stress, there’s no worrying about money or life challenges or anything,

“Everything goes away, everything melts away and all that matters is what’s in front of you, the colours.

“When I’m stressed, even still today, even though I don’t suffer with anxiety the same way I did back then, if I’m feeling a bit stressed, even on my lunch breaks, I’ll go out and have a paint, or on weekends, I’ll paint.”

Working full-time as a writer, Chapman said in that respect she had always been creative and in a way, artistically creative.

Over the years, the artist has collaborated with other business owners and worked with a range of companies including Lime and Mortar, Nicoco Design, Ruby Olive, Geelong brand Picnic Season and more.

 

She said each collaboration she’s done had been fantastic and her works could now be found on a range of different products from picnic baskets and rugs through to earring and handbags.

“They’re probably one of my favourite things about being a small business owner are other collabs.

“We work together and help each other promote the product and it’s always a really rewarding experience.”

At the moment, Chapman hasn’t set any expectations on herself going into the future.

“I just paint for the joy of it and if it makes people happy, that’s a bonus,” she said.

For more information, follow @stephchapmanart on Instagram.