My tutors have suggested that I look at Patrick Caulfield as an example of an artist who paints simplified images with limited colours, and hihlights specific points of his compositions, either with colour or pattern which is excluded in the rest of the painting. The idea of me replicating this in my own paintings is that I think more carefully about my compositions, and either make my paintings patterned all over and multicoloured, as in the Lavenham interior painting – or greatly limit the colours and patterned areas for striking and simple compositions, as in my second version of the Lavenham staircase painting.
I will experiment with this idea, and to demonstrate the kind of images I could produce to create a more empty and unreal effect, I have included some examples of relevant Patrick Caulfield images.
I find Interior with a Picture interesting because of the contrast between the patterned wallpaper and the plain blocks of colour used to indicate the walls and top of the stairs, which is also juxtaposed with the great detail with which the picture on the wall has been painted. I think that these differences give the image a strange and slightly surreal appearance.
Another interesting image is Caulfield’s Second Glass of Whisky (1992) which captures an unseen interior in night-time blackness, giving the feeling of sitting alone in a room in the middle of the night, which also creates a dreamlike atmosphere. The white squares on the black walls suggest moonlight coming through a nearby window.
