Adelaide Damoah is a British artist of Ghanaian descent whose earlier work combined African and Western influences while highlighting social issues. A founding member of the BBFA (Black British Female Artists Collective), her current practice involves using her body as a “living paintbrush” to paint or print onto various surfaces. We caught up with Adelaide to find out more about her practice…

 

 

 

I love the texture, look and feel of oil paint, so at first, I used just that. Initially, I used only permanent alizarin crimson by Winsor and Newton or Michael Harding. I chose this colour because I wanted to get something that reminded me of tissue and blood and I felt that this colour was most consistent in getting across the feeling that I wanted. It’s probably not sensible to use oil paint on skin! As a consequence, I now use water mixable oil paint by Winsor and Newton. It’s much easier to wash off and less irritating to the skin. I adore the vibrancy of Michael Harding alizarin crimson too and I have some of his oils.

 

For my last performance I used Winsor and Newton Artisan water mixable ultramarine blue. It looked very shiny, beautiful and dark against my skin. Against the white canvas it was a perfect shade of ultramarine. I wanted something as close to Yves Klein’s blue as possible.