Art Melbourne is kicking off at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton from the 22-25th April and one of our favourite galleries, Outré, will be exhibiting at the event, bringing with them some incredible international artists to Melbourne including Angelique Houtkamp (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

Click here to win a double pass to Art Melbourne.

Houtkamp has built a deserved reputation as an artist and tattooist with a distinctive style, enchanting visual language and fresh vision of history that has attracted sparkling fanfare and followers internationally. It wasn’t all smooth sailing and worldwide acclaim though! Houtkamp was born in a small town near Amsterdam and moved to the big city at the age of 18 to become a tattoo artist. After 12 years of working all sorts of odd jobs including being a seamstress, piercer and a waitress, Houtkamp finally got her foot in the door of a tattoo parlor and the rest, is history.

We recently caught up with Angelique to find a bit more about her art, inspirations and work methods.

Hi Angelique – you work very close with Outré gallery and they were one of the first galleries to sell your prints. How did this come about?
Well, I started making prints of my work to take to tattoo conventions and to sell them at the booths that I was tattooing at. This all went well and people where liking them. I was then featured in a little article in a Juxtapoz tattoo special, and someone from the Outré gallery crew saw that magazine and contacted me. It all went from there!

What is your process when designing an illustration? Do you sketch it first? Are your pieces hand-drawn or constructed on computer?
I am not a very good at illustrating, in that it takes me a long time to set a whole thing up. I draw everything by hand and then scan it and tweak it in Photoshop. You know, like lips that could be just a little higher, all these little details and things are much easier to adjust there. I plan the colouring that way too as on a computer it is easier to remove a colour and see if another one works better. Then the piece goes to the painting board and everything is done by hand, pen and brush.

Do you plan your pieces or are they quite spontaneous and sporadic?
Most of my pieces are quite spontaneous. I am a bit of an in-the-spur-of-the-moment kind of person, so if I’m into something I want to paint it straight away. Doing things with a theme, which is sometimes a request from a gallery, can be really difficult for me. I don’t have the patience to stick with a theme and sometimes I’m not into the theme at that moment or can’t get any inspiration on it

Is there anything special you need to consider when designing an illustration that will be a tattoo as opposed to one for print?

Yah, for sure. If it’s for a tattoo it is made to the clients specifications. If it’s a painting by me, I can do whatever I please. I like that balance though. Customers can give you great ideas and inspiration to run with, but it’s also very nice to do completely what I want.

Do you listen to music whilst you work? If so, what are you listening to at the moment?
If I’m really working I can’t listen to music, it distracts me. But when I’m doing things where I don’t need to concentrate I love listening to music. I love loads of different stuff. I usually shuffle between extremes like Edith Piaf to Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. My new favorite band is Airbourne!

In three words how would you describe your work ethos?
Diligent, old school and for a lack of a better word Karma, in that I believe you get back what you put into it, meaning; work hard and you will be rewarded.

Where do you feel most inspired?
In the car, the passenger seat. I can really let my mind go and that is when I have the best ideas.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Having a career at all and being called an artist. For years I did nothing but hang in bars, see bands and be a slacker. I would never have thought I would be such a hard worker ever – I guess that all happens when you find something you love doing.

Do you have any advice for fellow artists who wish to get their work out there and noticed?
That is the hardest part. You wouldn’t believe how many emails I used to send out to galleries, magazines etc. and the response you get is 0.01%. It almost seems that if you don’t get noticed by them first in some way, you probably aren’t worth it. When I started, websites were extremely expensive, there was no Facebook, MySpace etc, so it is easier now to spread your work.

I guess I would say to spend a set amount of time a day or a week in promoting yourself, through a website, peoples blogs, [online] zines, facebook, emailing the right people, all these things. Keep at it and love what you do, which makes it easier to keep going. Also, keep in mind there are only very few people who get noticed widespread in a matter of months, it usually will take you 6 years.

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