Advice To Artists From One Of Australia’s Greats: Jordan Kerwick

All photos provided by Jordan Kerwick.

Jordan Kerwick is an Australian artist that you have definitely already heard about. 

Having started painting on pot plants back in 2016, more or less on a whim, to become one of the most sought after and paid for Australian artists worldwide in what a lot of art people have said is a relatively short amount of time. I’m personally not someone that is well versed on the art history, politics and parameters that define what ‘success in a short amount of time’ is, but I’d imagine selling paintings for over six figures in your 30s is pretty telling, especially for someone who found their way into art in a less than traditional way.

Jordan lives in the south of France with his young family. He paints every single day, has exhibitions around the world and is still positively surprised by the fact that this is his job. His figurative work is never planned but rather evolves from a palette of colours that he gravitates towards, and as he explains in our chat below, ‘looks like a piece of shit until the last 5%.’ This unrefined, unapologetic and joyful chaste of himself is how I would also describe his work. More so, I would also describe Jordan as a genuinely great bloke. While he might not have attended a prestigious art school, that is not to say Jordan isn’t well educated on art and respectful of the practice. He might come across as someone who simply fell into it, but it doesn’t mean he is any less deserving. 

Hey thanks for jumping on so early in the morning, practically on the complete opposite timezones so I appreciate it. How are you? How cold is it over there? 

Jordan Kerwick: Hey no worries mate. I think it’ll be a top of nine today. So it's not insane.

Where in France exactly are you again? 

Down south near the Spanish border to southwest France.

Ah no way. I’ve been telling everyone I’m moving to France one day. 

You should do it, mate. It's the best. I won't give you any advice or anything because you are better off going into it naively and it falling into place. 

That's good advice actually, I back that.

It’s amazing. It's very different to Australia but we love it. 

Do you think you will stay there? 

We've been here for six years. We're renovating our place at the moment, so we're pretty locked in. I do get homesick from time to time for sure. I miss footy.

Footy? 

Yeah I go for Geelong. 

Oh no, I’m a Swannies gal. I could also go on about France and footy forever but I feel like that’s not what the people want. Could you please give me a little background as to you as an artist in case whoever does read this has no idea who you are, which would be weird, but you never know. In your own words, who are you? 

In my own words I am a painter, father, husband. I don't know, just a pretty normal guy living south of France and making snakes with paint and other shit. 

I love it. And at what point did you become an artist? However you define being an artist? 

In my previous life the job I was involved with was pretty stressful. So my wife bought me some paints to paint pots with. I thought it would be pretty easy but I was very wrong and then I just became obsessed with trying to get better. I spent a lot of time reading and looking and eventually when everything turned to shit in my previous career, I was lucky enough to be able to sell a few paintings. It got to a point where it made sense not to get another job and just paint, so yeah just fell into it to be honest. 

Amazing, and just quickly going back to France, do you think that has influenced your work? 

Absolutely. It’s really cliche but the artist that I love the most is Matisse. He was the anchor into all sorts of further investigations and understanding I had of the broader modern art through France. I became obsessed with lots of French painters and conceptual artists. We've been lucky enough to retrace some of the steps living here, like going to Provence where Van Gogh lived and worked. It became a big obsession. You go to Paris and are just surrounded by so much history where it all began and what we all owe it to now. France is always a romantic notion. It’s a good spot to paint in. 

You mention you did a lot of reading, what were some of those books? 

I think the first one I read was A Moveable Feast by Hemingway, lots of interesting thinkers, painters and authors of that time. Then I got into the surrealists and started trying to read some André Breton which was pretty difficult because I didn't understand anything he was talking about. It's quite intellectual for me but we got little parts. Then just biographies basically. So Matisse is the big one. Picasso too, although he wasn’t a great bloke. 

What about musical companions when you paint? Who’s on your playlist? 

I got through the whole The Brian Jonestown Massacre catalogue every week I reckon. Another dick. 

(Laughs) Yeah I’ve interviewed him before and can confirm that. But I love their music. 

Yeah one of my best friends is also a journalist and last time he was in Melbourne he semi kid napped her and she also said he wasn’t very pleasant. He’s not going to be around much longer. But I’ve loved his music since forever. 

I guess you have to separate the art from the artist with that one. Who else are you playing? 

I’ve recently discovered Ghostwoman. They’re very cool, a bit of Jonestown in them I feel. Benjamin Booker as well. The Stones, Springsteen. Lots of podcasts on UFOs and conspiracy theories to keep myself entertained. 

If you’re in a creative rut, what do you do? 

 I just pull out all the books. We've got a pretty extensive library of just art books and I just open them up. I have one of the big Matisse books in front of me now actually. I always flick through Schnobble, Kushner and Hawkney too. I always look for interesting pallets, not so much compositions. My wife actually taught me to look at dresses, like female clothing. The patterns and palettes in fashion are insane. But it’s one of those things that I never really know what I am doing. I have no idea what I'm doing, to be honest. I just make it up as I go. But I think having no structure is in some ways good. 

You say you have no structure, but are you someone that has to push through to finish a piece of work or will you take a break and come back to it? 

No, I always push it because the honest truth is all of my paintings look pretty shit until the last 5%. I will dislike them until the last minute. It feels weird and unnatural not to finish a piece so I always try to. 

I know you have a young family so I feel like the idea of a routine kind of goes out the window with that, but is there any kind of ritual or thing that you do that clicks your brain into art mode? 

 Just coffee. About four of them straight up. 

Noted (laughs). Me too. You also mention you had a career previous to this artist's life, and now you’ve had this incredible trajectory in a relatively short amount of time. I’d love to know if this life was ever on your bingo card when you were young? 

No, not at all. I think living overseas was something that resonated for sure but I was never personally motivated enough to do it by myself. My wife was the real driving force behind that. But this life? No, I think there were a lot of things that came into play with it. A bit of luck, the timing. Instagram too, it wasn’t what it is now when I was starting out as an artist. It was very much in favour of artists back then. 

Yeah I feel like before the art or the photographs are what made people’s names for themselves but now it feels like it’s the name and then the art. Do you think there is more pressure for creative people to live off their art to feel like they’ve made it now? 

Yeah I think so. I think people forget that there is absolutely nothing wrong with working a ‘non artist job’ while creating art. You’re still an artist. I didn’t start being a full time artist until I was 35, you know? I had a really good mate of mine, a brilliant artist, come to stay with me a few weeks ago and we were talking about what we’d be doing if we didn’t do this and he straight up said being a barista. He would love to make people coffee and talk shit. Sometimes I think I would like to do something more social because you go a little bit crazy by yourself all day. 

Yeah sometimes I think young people give up art too quickly because they can’t do it full time but realistically, only a handful of people can afford to do art full time, it doesn’t make anyone less of an artist because you need to work and afford to eat food. 

Exactly. Also the expectation is different. I think to be good at anything, and this transcends art, but anything in life, I think you need to put the hours in. These young people see all this fake shit on instagram and tiktok that just isn’t true to how people actually live and put an unfair pressure on themselves to achieve that when really the best thing you can do is to just do the art. Then perhaps learn how to market yourself. That will be more handy than going to art school.

Does it ever feel like a job being a full time artist? 

Yeah, when you're a spud like me and don't get the deadlines right and have to work to get things done in time for exhibitions then yes. It feels like a job now because I’ve left a huge amount of work to do in two weeks but that’s completely my fault and nothing actually to do with the art. It’s weird because this is also my hobby. When I’m not painting, I’m drawing. I’m doing it all the time. To call myself an artist can be a little embarrassing as well because the nurses, doctors, teachers, they’re the people who really contribute to society. I’m not too sure how my art does. 

I think you do it in your own way. What’s the two-week deadline that you’re working towards now? 

I've got some work going over to the gallery I am represented by in the UK and some art going to Dubai as well. I also have a solo show in Stockholm and I’ve been curating a show in Sydney at Piermarq which takes a lot of time trying to wrangle artists because we are all pretty useless when it comes to this sort of stuff. I think we’re all hopeless at deadlines across the board. But it’s been fun. There will be a mixed bag of artists from Europe and the US that have never shown in Australia. I’m really excited because I’ve been working with Piermarq since day one. They took a chance on me so I really enjoy working with them. 

I would love to check that out. Is there anything else you would like to shout out? Any advice for young artists? That's probably a good one, everyone loves advice from people they look up too. 

Yeah, just keep working every day. If you can't paint, draw. If you can't draw, just cut stuff out or do stuff on your phone. Listen a lot to music, read a lot of books. Keep going. Very Australian of me but just have a go. That's all you can do. Show dedication to whatever it is.