On the last of the hot days, London scorched and dusty, I descended into the underground labyrinth and then emerged at Chancery Lane. After considering why tourists were roaming these dead streets, and picking up pastries, I arrived outside an old office building now owned by The Koppel Project (an arts charity that offers affordable, communal studio spaces). Rebecca greeted me at the entrance in a paint-covered denim apron over a crop top and shorts, looking cool, with shaggy, shoulder-length hair. We commented almost immediately on the weather. We’re British, after all. We went up in the lift, “are you ok with lifts?” “Yes, fine!”, which opened up to a scene that all artists and art students are familiar with: long corridors with MDF boards separating semi-open-plan working studio spaces. A mannequin, stacks of canvases, rolls of paper, paint covered bare floors.

Rebecca studied Classical studies at university and then an MA in Heritage management, and thought that a job in National Trust properties or museums was where she was heading. After over a decade of working in London, chopping and changing jobs, she ended up covered in paint and feeling at home. She has now been a painter professionally for three years.

Hardaker is inspired by memories, stories, and thoughts, and the abstract compositions are painted spontaneously. Having previously used text in her work she no longer does, and yet she still ‘reads’ her work. The narratives flow around the canvas, with forms and shapes drawing the eye to the next part of the story.

The works are layered, not just in mediums (acrylic, oil pastels, ink) but in subject matter and colour too. One reason for this is that she paints over paintings frequently, perhaps this can be owed to a kind of boredom or frustration with her work. I mentioned that Ai Weiwei often valued the process over the result and had to be persuaded not to throw his work away, I said it’s better to paint over, her works will be like Da Vinci’s in the future when they scan them to find the layers.

An obsessive focus on the subject matter of the moment means that during lockdown she painted countless paintings of fairy liquid bottles, and currently its dinosaurs with Dior saddle bags.

Her work is supremely joyful, and sitting on the paint-covered floor (cross-legged) we discussed originality, social media and David Hockney.

Listen to a voice note below which captures some of our conversations.