Painting from within

The pieces I have been working on this month have been, to a large extent, inspired by my interior life, in both the physical and mental sense.

Illness has kept me indoors, which has made me more responsive to the environment and materials around me and more reliant on my memories; memories of childhood, of landscapes and also of other artists who have inspired me.

As a student my National Diploma of Design thesis which tenuously compared the early work of Piet Mondrian with the later works of Cezanne. Mondrian is most famously known for his later work, the abstract, geometric paintings like Victory Boogie Woogie – known as neoplasticism – but his earlier works were more realistic, representations of nature and the Dutch landscapes. It was these early shapes and forms of trees and churches which were the inspiration for his abstract work.

Cezanne’s work became more abstract in his later years too, but for him this was a primarily physical response to his failing eyesight, when things became more blurred and simplified..

I don’t think I’ll ever be an abstract painter, but in these two pieces, I like Mondrian, have been inspired by nature and Norfolk’s flat landscapes, with its horizontal planes and layers. They were created using left over paint from previous pieces. I’ve always had a tendency not to waste paint, and when I use it memories come through and these memories are often tied to the landscape.

The other pieces I have been working on continue recurring themes of reflections and portals; views through windows, in mirrors; of faces, this time of a mannequin. The piece with the garlic also has my face in it; the garlic also being a recurring theme of my life and in my work.