5 Questions with Gavin Chai

Gavin Chai is a figurative painter and artist based in Auckland. He specialises in the traditional technique of oil painting on wooden panels and canvases and paints the world through a subtle introverted glaze.

Do you have any rituals that you follow to get into your creative practice?

Every morning after breakfast, I would pick up an art book by certain artists, flip to specific pages, mostly featuring painting reproductions that might tell me something about my ongoing works. I'd then make a cup of strong coffee and top it off with a playlist of music rich in polyphony. I need the combined alchemy of colour, music and taste to brew ideas, dream fantasy, cultivate sensibilities, or at least to wake myself up. Perhaps I also enjoy daydreaming and taking a walk to the beach, although I can hardly call them rituals.

As a trained carpenter do you ever weave or merge your two crafts of painting and woodwork?

Conceptually, there is little to no connection between my past training in carpentry and my current paintings. However, when it comes to starting a painting, one must prepare the surface, and having some knowledge of woodworking certainly comes in handy. I prefer to paint on panels, so knowing how to source, cut, and treat them is essential

As a creative, do you experience moments of self-doubt or imposter syndrome? If so, how do you motivate and reassure yourself to keep going?

I have to deal with self-doubts all the time, more so than before. There is a constant anxiety within me, combined with ceaseless work that may either bear fruit or lead to nothing. Having to commit to several exhibitions a year can be a stressful thing, and perhaps the best way for me to move forward at this stage is to have a clean break from exhibitions over a fixed period of time in order to reassess my practice without burden and expectations.

In Folly, we are featuring your paintings from your Interior series. Could you provide insight into what inspired this series? For example, were you drawn to the perspective that encourages viewers to look beyond, or perhaps the use of shadows and the repetition of windows?

I paint interiors the way a poet would arrange words in stanzas. They resemble a deep emotion set within pots, where feelings can boil into tangible forms. The window is the escape where light sets in, where the infinite meets the finite, where dream meets reality, and where spiritual meets material. 

What advice would you give to aspiring artists who are just starting on their creative path?

Art is a gift, and anyone can and should have it. It is a truth seldom mentioned that a bird flies not solely because of its wings or its physical build, but because its heart belongs in the sky. So long as your heart is in the right place, you’re on the right path.