Twinkle Troughton is an artist, a painter currently living and working in Margate. Using oil and solvents on paper to create luminosity and form through corrosion and decay, her work is inspired by both the personal and the political. A love of storytelling and for nature, and a strong connection to her European heritage informs much of the content, whilst the societal often underlies the work. Twinkle has been on our radar here at Organ for a number of years, mostly as she’s evolved as a rather fine painter, before that with her musical activities. Right now there’s a knowing confidence flowing through her work, her bomb pool paintings are wonderful, her current fascination with the Topiary of England’s gardens deliciously rewarding.
Twinkle has exhibited both in the UK and internationally and has work in a number of private collections. Recent solo exhibitions include Remnant at Paper Gallery, Manchester and Wild Sanctum at Haeckles HQ, Margate, she’s featured in quite a few of our Cultivate shows. Alongside her practice Twinkle also curates exhibitions, writes, and is the editor of Margate Mercury after five years of being the magazine’s Arts Editor. Twinkle is currently fundraising to cover at least some of the expenses involved in the MA she’s about to embark on so do have a look and maybe find yourself something at a price that probably won’t be repeated. To tie in with that fundraising, and mostly because we’re really enjoying her work at the moment, we sent Twinkle our thirteen questions. As always, twelve are generic questions sent to everyone, the thirteenth something with a little more focus. Twinkle is the twentieth artist to take on the questions, we kind of like seeing the different way the same questions are tackled…
1: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m a painter who lives in Margate, and I work from my studio at home. My paintings tend to be landscape-focussed, often using landscapes as metaphors or as ways to explore the societal or the psychological. I like to find details within landscapes that reveal a snippet of history or trigger stories in the imagination, details which are nearly always the human trace. Recent themes within my work have been Brexit and climate change, two separate disasters, but both inextricably linked too.
As well as painting, music and writing have both also played important roles in my creative work; I was once a singer in punk-rock group The Fairies Band with my sister Tinky, and best friends Tinsel and Sparkle, and was co-founder of indie-label Pushing Pussy Records. I am currently the editor for Margate Mercury as well as a regular writer for the magazine. It’s an honour to get to tell so many incredible stories of the people and places in this town.
2: WHERE ARE YOU TODAY? WHERE ARE YOU MOST DAYS?
Today I am at home in Margate, writing these answers, and once I have finished I shall have some lunch then head upstairs to my studio. I’m working on a series of paintings from a residency I’m currently doing in the gardens of Doddington Place near Faversham. It’s a magical place.
Most week days are studio days, mixed in with various other projects such as the work I do for Margate Mercury and painting at Doddington Place. I’m also working with an incredible woman called Sandra Hampton who established the Sandra Art4All studio, working with twelve artists who are deaf, autistic and neurodivergent. She currently has an exhibition of these artists’ works in Ramsgate alongside an open studio where they are working live in the space. The show will soon be moving to The Margate School in Margate, and I can’t recommend a visit enough. The work is bright, colourful, uplifting and joyous.
3: WHO OR WHAT IS EXCITING YOU RIGHT NOW?
I say the word ‘excited’ a lot in response to this question!
Last summer I decided to go back to the drawing board with my painting to learn what it is about painting that really excites me, to discover what my own language with paint is. And I found it’s the removal of paint, it’s the alchemical reaction between oil paint, linseed and various mediums to create corrosion, decay, form and light. It’s a process that mesmerises me!
I am also excited as I’ll be starting an MA at the City & Guilds of London Art School in September. It’s been a dream of mine for some time, but it’s taken me a little while to take that leap, and now I have I can’t wait.
Other artists I’m excited by…well Billy Childish paintings make me swoon and he currently has an exhibition at Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate. His paintings really do excite me, they just make you want to go home and pick up a paintbrush! I love Cecily Brown, her paintings have excited me recently too. In fact, I often listen to podcasts like Talk Art and Great Women Artists and often end up feeling very excited by whoever I am listening to! Tinsel Edwards, one of my oldest and dearest friends who is a wonderful artist living in Glasgow is good at sending me podcasts to listen to as well. It’s great to have friends who can help inspire!
And, due to my husband’s work, I get excited by bands he introduces me to, including a recent intro to a musician called Hak Baker from East London who is just fantastic. He’s a storyteller; his music is both personal and political but filled with compassion and love. Go check him out.
4: WHY DO YOU MAKE ART?
God I know this sounds so cheesy, but I think it’s because really…I have to.
Making artwork is a complicated process, it’s a series of problems to be solved whilst indulging in something that really does bring fulfilment and joy. And whenever I find myself having a wobble, thinking perhaps I should be doing something else with my life, being an artist is the only thing I can ever really picture myself being. It’s what I always come back to. It’s always been there since I was a child.
I am lucky to have parents who have always actively encouraged me to be an artist. My dad, David Troughton, is a brilliant artist and I used to sit and copy him painting when I was a young girl, and then he taught me at secondary school too. And my mum, Monica Troughton, is also creative, she was an actress when I was growing up, and she’s also a writer and has an incredible imaginative mind, and she has always been there for me in my endeavours.
5: HOW DO YOU WORK?
There are so many elements to my working process. I am an avid walker, each studio day nearly always starts off with a beach walk which is a time for thought, and when I can, I love being out in the rural countryside surrounded by green (this might be a little obvious when you see my paintings). It’s here that I often get inspiration for my paintings. I take photos of things I notice and then go home and look into them to see if there’s anything there I want to pursue.
I then work from my own images, or from found images, and paint, investigate, and paint some more. Recently, the work I’ve been doing at Doddington Place has all been outdoors. It’s the first plein-air painting I’ve done in such a long time that I felt really unconfident about it, and wasn’t sure how my process of removing paint would work in those circumstances. But I have found the experience to be so enriching, to be out in nature listening to the birds, insects and rustling trees while I paint has been so soothing for the soul. And it’s helped my confidence too, as I’ve overcome something I was unsure about and have actually really loved it.
In the studio I listen to plays, audio books and podcasts when I work (as well as some James O’Brien too, as I find it’s like a therapy session with regards to today’s woeful politics in the UK). I love being transported off into a story. I think that love of stories feeds into my work, but also helps me focus on what I’m doing.
6: TELL US ABOUT THE ART YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH?
I think I would say I most identify with other painters. It’s always painting which I am drawn to, am enchanted by, love the smell of, love seeing the marks of on a surface, and love learning and understanding why the painter paints.
But I would also say I identify with art which has activism or society at the heart of it. Work which questions the state of the world, questions power, seeks to inspire change, seeks to engage in conversation, and explores the problems we all face together. I am always drawn to this kind of work too. It’s been there at the heart of a lot of my work over the years.
A while back my work was very ‘in your face’ political work, and then during the pandemic I took a huge step back, I think I needed to find solace more than anything. However, in recent years politics has crept back in, but in a more subtle and less prescriptive way in terms of me presenting my own opinions.
7: WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK?
Hmmmmm what a tough question!!!! I always enjoy the luminosity that forms as paint is removed, and I like the fact you can see the process of painting in my work, it’s not hidden or disguised.
8: WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK?
Another tough one, because I could probably go on and on …which is actually the problem. I know I still have so much to learn, and I’m excited by that, but it can be frustrating when you feel what you don’t know is holding you back. Essentially though, I think the thing that’s most wrong with me is my own self-doubt.
9: WHAT HAS BEEN THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE SO FAR?
Awww slush alert but I reckon this has to be my wedding day. Marrying a man I adore and being surrounded with the family and friends who are all so dear to us. I can’t remember much of the day as it was a bit of a blur, but I remember how I felt and I was SO happy!
10: WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY?
How to answer this one without writing an essay about the Tories???
Before I answer this properly, I feel it’s important to mention that I think anger must be used positively. As long as it doesn’t fester within you and becomes something that makes you act negatively towards people around you, you can use it to drive you forwards and use it to make change.
But yes, there are things that do make me angry that I try to use as positive motivation. As well as the Tories, (especially this current crop who I just think make up the worst government this country has ever had the misfortune to have preside over us), Brexit, climate change deniers, injustice, racism, sexism, people living in poverty, people doing important jobs such as carers not being paid properly, lack of compassion towards refugees, throwing litter, people who don’t pick up after their dogs, chopping trees and hedgerows down unnecessarily, and stubbing my toes. For some reason stubbing my toes always makes me feel angry!
11: WHICH SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE AND WHY?
I’d love to have one that just stops all lying politicians from being able to lie! Does anyone know what that superpower is called? So much would improve if politicians had to have honest debates, and instead weren’t steering the country to a place which satiates their own greed. They wouldn’t be able to divide us quite like they do!
Imagine the positive progress we could make if a superhero took lying out of the equation.
12: WHAT COULDN’T YOU DO WITHOUT?
My husband, my family, my friends, my studio, green tea, cheese, white wine.
13: WHAT IS IT ABOUT TOPIARY ANYWAY?
It’s an utter enigma. It’s a craft which came from ancient Rome and over time ended up in the grounds of stately homes, denoting wealth and status. Topiary holds so much of our history within it. Even the trees themselves are often decades and centuries old. In this way, topiary works in so many ways as a metaphor for the class system, for the country, and for society.
It’s also a highly skilled art form which takes vision, time, patience and creativity. It’s something I’ve come to really love and appreciate as I’ve been exploring it and making paintings about it. Topiary is a collaboration between nature and humans, creating a space which is often other-worldly. But it’s also humans controlling a natural form, so again, it is rich with metaphors for the environment, nature and the climate crisis, and the human relationship with it.
And finally any future shows or events coming up that you wish us to tell people about?
Yes! My paintings from my Doddington Place Gardens residency will be exhibited in the cafe there from 6th August until they close at the end of September. The gardens re-open in March where I’ll be hopefully adding some new pieces and having a spring relaunch of the show.
I’m currently fundraising for my up-coming MA by selling a series of £100 paintings which are all on my website
THE ORGAN 
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