We were lucky to catch up with Daisy Craddock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daisy , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I never stopped being an artist when I chose to apprentice as a painting conservator. My professional life was always a balancing act of both passions. It’s only after I retired from art conservation that I realized just how much more I might have given to my painting career had I tried to rely solely on an income from my art.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m from the south and was born in Memphis, TN. I was always drawing, but didn’t know any artists and it never occurred to me that I could be one. I was on a very academic track in high school and beyond, and it wasn’t until I spent a summer in Europe after my junior year at Rhodes College that I saw great museums for the first time. I had an epiphany before the Turners at the Tate Museum, and changed my major on the spot.

I was married while still in grad school at the University of Georgia. My artist husband and I spent most of our twenties living and painting in downtown Soho, New York. It was the 1970’s and freelance work was easy to come by. An artist friend of mine introduced me to textile design. I was self taught and soon earning enough to support myself. But suddenly we were going to be parents. About that time, there was a sea change in the textile industry and the converters that we sold to began to leave New York City.

My daughter was six months old when my mother committed suicide. It was only after life and death happened so close together that I became ambitious for my artwork. I began to use painting to sort through emotions and still do. I had a breakthrough when I found a roll of black photo paper on the sidewalk one day, and I began using it to make landscape drawings on visits with friends upstate. My work was suddenly getting notice and I had my first one person show in 1983. Much to my amazement, the show was sold out and I received some great press.

I learned about painting conservation from a mother in my daughter’s first grade class. She had studied at the Straus Center at Harvard and worked at the Met for several years. All of my other mentors had gone to the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, so while I had no credentials, I received an invaluable education. It was at the dawn of contemporary art conservation, and a time when it was still possible to apprentice. (These days a conservation degree is a prerequisite for most positions.) I considered going back for another degree, but my problem – solving, color matching, and hand skills carried me through. I did return to study organic and inorganic chemistry for two years, a road previously not taken, but I was good at science. My passion for painting conservation continued for the next twenty years at two private studios in New York City. I spent a great deal of time up close with many of my painting heroes, including Mark Rothko, Brice Maiden, Joan Mitchell and more. A turning point was establishing my own company in 1995. I worked mostly by myself then on early modern and contemporary paintings for collectors and small museums. Some of my favorite projects were with my daughter Georgia, herself now an artist and owner of a decorative painting company. We developed a niche conserving historic decorative elements for the National Park Service, a direction which she occasionally continues. I finally retired from conservation in 2018 after working on Hurricane Sandy paintings with a colleague for six years.

While I continued to paint and show my landscapes throughout the years in conservation, it did mean working most of the time. In fact, conservation inspired a second body of artwork, which I call my monochromes. Aside from color, the subject of these oil on pastel diptychs is taken from the way I looked at paintings as a conservator. They’re about incident and accident, sheen and the way light plays over a surface. Appearing as abstract blocks of color, these works are made from life and are often quite literal To me at least! My subjects have ranged from fruit to flowers, and may sometimes appeal to foodies and restaurants.

Seven years into retirement, I feel I’m just getting going again in painting. I hope for another twenty!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I didn’t pivot, but rather balanced, painting and art conservation, Who knows how much better I could have been if I’d chosen one over the other. What if I’d dropped painting and gone back for an MS in conservation? Today my answer to that question is easy. Whenever a young person asks me about getting into art conservation, I encourage them to pursue a degree. You might work in low level assistant positions, and you actually need pre-program experience in order to apply, but a conservation degree is essential today.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

And what if I’d applied to the top tier graduate art programs and made all of the early sacrifices necessary to paint full time? While I’m proud of my achievements, I sometimes wonder. Now that I’m in my seventies and trying to take my art to another level, I see how much more I could have accomplished if I’d just stuck to painting. And yes, there is ageism to deal with. But these days I have so much more time.

Much to my amazement, I reconnected with an old friend, also an artist, when I moved to the Hudson Valley after retiring from art conservation. We were married in his backyard a few years ago, and I’ve just sold my beloved farmhouse (and recently rennovated garage studio) to be with Stephen nearby. We now share a fantastic new studio with 14 foot high walls, and I am working larger than I have in years. Stay tuned…

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daisycraddock.com. www.craddockpaintingconservation.com
• Instagram: daisycraddock
• Facebook: Daisy Craddock
• Other: Interview on Yale Univ Praxis radio: https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/daisy-craddock/

Image Credits
courtesy of the artist