Hands at Work: In Conversation with Georgia Beaumont

Our hands are our hardest working companions and never has this been truer than in the life of an artist.

Georgia Beaumont, like any maker, relies on her hands not only to perform the most essential tasks, but to be the vehicles for her creations. Her love of nature is expressed through the bold florals that caught our attention long ago. Here we find out how a London-based painter jumped headfirst into the world of flora and fauna as well as the go-to rituals that keep her hands at their very best.

Tell us about how your journey started in painting. What inspired you to start?

I remember seeing the work of some contemporary painters like Peter Doig around the age of fifteen and just falling in love with them. It was the way they used paint that changed my whole idea of what could be done. I’ve experimented with things over the years but my focus on flowers has really been in the past two or three years.

What was it about flowers that caught your attention?

It actually came about during the pandemic. I was living in the countryside and just found so much comfort in my daily walk – observing flowers very closely until it started to infiltrate my work. They’re a constant source of inspiration – you can always find something new in them. 

Do you find that your work is seasonal?

A little bit. There are flowers and colours that I've come to find very comforting and I also understand how certain colours work together so they often repeat in my work. It's probably more mood-based than seasonal. I study the flowers seasonally, but my paintings are more inclined to change with my mood.

Speaking of mood, what does self-care mean to you? Do you have any practices or rituals you stick to?

Walking is definitely a ritual for me – even the walk to my studio in the morning. It sets me up for the day and I always light some incense before I get to work. Then once I’m home, I have a little process of getting clean – particularly my hands – and then cooking to shut my mind down from the day’s work.

Tell us about your hands – you’re working with them all day so how do you look after them?

I probably wash my hands about eight times a day and with all the different paints and chemicals they get very dry so I'm a bit obsessed with hand cream. They work hard so it feels important to take care of them.

Do you have any rituals you follow to nurture your hands?

Yes – In the evening, I always sit and put my cream on and let it sink into my hands – it signals the day being over for me.

What is your favourite kind of piece to create?

I love very large scale pieces. There’s a physicality to creating them – a lot of movement. I get to feel a real relationship between the mental and physical side of my job creating larger pieces which is quite freeing, whereas smaller works can actually feel more challenging.

Tell us more about how you use colour in your work

I love to use colours from nature as the foundation of my paintings, so I use a lot of greens and browns and then I use my imagination. I find that vibrant colours kind of pop up from inside of me and then I fuse them with natural colours.

What does your process look like?

I’d say it's quite intuitive. I sketch the works out with a thin wash of paint but everything's a bit unplanned which means you get kind of awkward breathing spaces that are unexpected and accidental the same way you would come across them in nature itself. 

There's a kind of magic in imagining something in your mind and then your hands being able to make it happen in front of you – I get a huge amount of pleasure in working with my hands. This kind of work combines the physical realm and the mental realm and your hands are the vehicle for that which is so wonderful. They’re worked hard but I'm so grateful for them.

What do you look for in the products you choose to care for your hands?

I love hand cream – it's an absolute essential in my life and, actually, all my friends have this big joke that I always have hand creams in every single handbag. I look for creams that are quite rich because my hands really need that nourishment. But I also look for products that are really natural and have very natural scents. I feel like scent can be really grounding and a beautiful experience that almost helps me to close down my day.

We like to think of this maker series as a gentle reminder to pause, appreciate all our hands are able to do and think how we care for them and ourselves.

Georgia uses the Reia Lime Leaf, Vetiver and Amber Hand Cream. Available to order here.