A day at the studio with Mr. Callaby: Insights, Challenges, and the Road Ahead

Sal Fasone
16 hours ago
5 min read

Stepping into Mr Callaby's Bristol studio feels like entering a whimsical realm where the boundaries between the adorable and the unsettling blur. Matthew Callaby, known professionally as Mr Callaby, is a British artist renowned for his acrylic-on-canvas creations that depict cute, chubby, anthropomorphic characters inhabiting a vivid and peculiar world. His distinctive illustrative style often balances on the edge of charm and eeriness, aiming primarily to infuse a sense of fun into his work.

In our interview, we delve into the inspirations behind his unique aesthetic, exploring how his background and experiences have shaped his artistic journey. From his early fascination with street art and digital design to his transition into full-time painting, Mr Callaby shares insights into the evolution of his style and the narratives that drive his creations.

Join us as we uncover the stories behind the characters that populate Mr Callaby's canvases and gain a deeper understanding of the playful yet thought-provoking universe he has meticulously crafted.

How did you start making art?

When I was deciding to go to university, I wanted to be a painter. I always wanted to be a painter, but I couldn't afford it. I didn't have any money, so I just studied graphic design to, you know, get paid and pay the bills. I did design and then ended up working in advertising. But the whole time, I would just paint late. And a lot of the ad agencies were really good to me and let me use the studio as an art studio. That’s where in the evenings, I would just have a corner with my canvases and paints, and I'd just finish work and paint. So after, about, eight years of doing that, pretty much my whole career in advertising, I'd built up a pretty big portfolio, and people were buying the work for, you know, only a couple of hundred pounds, or like £100 for canvases. Once I turned 30, I just wanted to see if I could make it work full time. I'd been saving for a few years to get enough money to get me by for six months, to see if I could just do six months full-time painting and what would happen. So, I decided to move to Montenegro. It's a much cheaper cost of living.

Was Montenegro just random? Had you had a couple of options?

I'd been before and loved it. Right. And I just reached out to a few landlords in different countries, and this landlord in Montenegro got back with a really lovely flat that had a steel studio in it. After about six months, I got an art dealer who saw the work and did quite well, he was getting the work out to more collectors and people like that.

And then I decided to move back to England.

Oh, was that a good choice?

I mean, my ex-girlfriend wanted to move back because she was homesick so we agreed to move back, but I'd still be there painting.

So, what has been the plan? What is your art about?

I think I've just been developing these cartoons for so long now. When I was a kid, I did street art and started drawing these kind of cute characters. They've just been in my head for over a decade now, and they've just slowly become more refined. And I think the last exhibition I had was when I sort of started painting the Sad Flowers and making these sad vases. Prior to that, I'd just made wall pieces—almost like visual candy, they're just kind of bright, colorful, a bit crazy. And then when I started moving into this last series of work with the Sad Flowers, I just felt like the work took on a bit more of a narrative and a little more of an idea there. And the show did quite well. I did it independently; I didn't do it with a gallery. And that was kind of the confidence to go on.

Because you had control over everything.

Yeah, and even though it was incredibly exhausting—I loved it. I'd never done it before, but it was a good learning curve and also a good reminder that galleries do a lot of work. Like, I don't agree with the 50% commission, but it definitely gave me a new appreciation for how much work goes on behind the scenes that you maybe don't think about. I'm now in this sort of stage where last year was a solo show. You've caught me at a time where I really don't have any idea what I'm doing., I've got this new theme; the new collection is like alcohol-related. It’s sort of very much a work in progress at the moment, but I've sort of landed on this idea that for me, like drinking and going out and stuff's always been a bit of a balancing act. I've sort of always been in control, but it's something I have to consider or think about.

Some pieces are still unfinished I see …

Since moving to this space—it's the first time I've had space—I've been working on multiple canvases at the same time which is a kind of new process. Usually, I'd only have the room to do one painting at a time. I kind of just started lots, and I'm just trying that out and seeing how that works. But they're all kind of like these scenes of balancing, and I've got my character in the back, like, lurking or keeping an eye, like, watching… I've got some ceramic bottles being made, which are going to be like my vases. So, I'm just at this point now where I really don’t know (laughs). Do you ever feel like you want to do a lot of things, and at the same time, don't have a clue what you’re doing? It also feels so unachievable at the moment. But that's another beauty of it, I think.

But that is the beauty of being an artist as you said!

I need a tangible deadline and I need a venue. I had a couple of venues that I was looking at that have fallen through so we will see …

What is the process of creating a piece?

It takes me a couple of day. For the paintings, it takes 2-3 weeks…It's just me and, you know, I like this super flat aesthetic. I do 3-4 coats of paint, sometimes even 5-6, for the yellows for example. It's just quite a laborious process.

What is the main struggle that you're facing as an artist?

Being an artist (laughs). I've got quite lucky that the process that I use to make my work is like satisfying content and that has allowed me to increase my social media followers. But that's not enough.

I really hope that I still come across as more of a fine artist than an influencer, even though. I mean, that can be a consequence of you being a fine artist, which is where you want to become. I think it's maybe because I'm just under my own thoughts all day, I maybe overthink these things, but I'm just really cautious of that idea of being seen as a content creator and not an artist. And I don't really do prints, I suppose, because on one hand, you know, you're maybe turning down financial opportunities to maybe preserve this integrity—people are constantly doing paid partnerships - I don't know if people even really care about that integrity anymore, or whether it is even something to worry about. I certainly don't judge other artists or people that I love if they do. But I think maybe it's the style of work I make, and like the cartoon nature of it, it could be quite easy to fall into the category of an influencer.