Women in Art: Q&A with Kayla Martell

On the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2024, we are excited to celebrate the progress made in promoting gender equality and empowering women, with a special focus in the creative arts sector. 

We had the pleasure to speak with the exceptional artist Kayla Martell, recognised for her exhibitions with the Society of Women Artists and for winning prestigious awards from the Federation of British Artists at Mall Galleries, including with the Royal Society of Marine Artists (The RSMA New Generation Award 2023) and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (The ROI Themed Painting Prize 2022).

Here, Kayla generously shares insights into her artistic journey, from her background and inspiration, to her unique creative process. Plus, as a practicing female artist, she offers valuable guidance for aspiring women navigating the contemporary art scene today.

Welcome, Kayla! Please could you tell us about your artistic background, and what draws you to painting the world around you?

Painting is a dance with a medium - in my case: oil. The medium is equally as important to me as the subject, I enjoy the movement of paint on the canvas, and all the variation that oil painting allows. As for the subject, I'm most interested in capturing the nuances of light in front of me. A little chroma reflected off a stove that I never noticed before, the shimmering purple of an avocado's skin, etc. Eventually, I'd like to take everything I've learned in still life, interiors, and move to bringing figures into my scenes.

Could you offer a more in-depth explanation of how your creative process takes shape? In particular, what steps or factors influence your decisions when it comes to arranging and positioning elements within your artwork?

For compositions, it's all about the Notan study for me. How darks and lights arrange themselves on a canvas, which is why I have strange objects together sometimes (like shoes and grapes), because I just like the arrangement and colours they make. Sometimes, I'm trying to tell a narrative, but most of my paintings are about the joy of painting.

Your still life compositions feature recurring motifs, for example shoes. Could you provide more insight into the significance of this repeated motif?

I do bring shoes a lot into my compositions. I think this likely plays into my goal of moving to figures eventually, because shoes have personality. They're lots of fun to draw, especially the laces which can be tied in a bow between sneakers to symbolise love or affection, or the shoes can be propped at opposite angles like maybe the people got into an argument. It's all a bit of fun and play, and a riddle of how to solve it with oil paint.

As a practicing female artist, what guidance would you offer to aspiring female artists navigating the contemporary art scene today? 

My one piece of advice is that you are right where you deserve to be, doing exactly what you deserve to do. Sometimes, that means painting en plain air in a busy street and facing all that comes with it, sometimes it's fighting your own negativity in your studio, but wherever the doubts come from, you deserve to be here. You deserve to paint. You deserve to share your work. 

Top image: Kayla Martell, Hey Sailor | Bottom image: Kayla Martell, Anya's Favourite Yellow Shoes