University Campus Suffolk

Since I’m now almost at the end of my project, I thought I would reflect on how my work and style has developed over the project, and which things I think worked the best, as well as how my ideas have changed during the process.

Before this project I have generally worked on more self-defined subjects such as still life’s and treescapes. The interior was a subject which seemed to allow much more room for imaginative development, as you can add to an interior whatever you like, and not necessarily what is there.

Throughout this project I have continued to use bold and expressive colour, which is one of the principal features of my style.

However, some new things which I have tried include working up to painting on a much larger scale than previously, as well as experimenting with creating scenes by putting together different bits of images, or distorting images on photoshop before painting them.

I think that both these things have added more impact to my paintings.

During this project I have also begun to gradually simplify my style, creating flatter and bolder images.

At the beginning of this project I decided to focus solely on contemporary interiors, but as I went on I realised that I was particularly drawn to historical interiors, such as the old pubs ‘The Swan’ and ‘The Bull’ – but depicting them in a contemporary way. This has allowed me more freedom when choosing locations, as well as permitting me to create interiors that are an unusual mix of old-fashioned and contemporary, which I think even increases their dreamlike atmosphere.

Throughout my project I have visited the locations I plan to paint, taking photographs and sketching onsite, before taking away my visual material and developing it into a painting. However, during this project I have also tried ‘building’ rooms from collected bits of different interiors, and drawing out imaginary strangely-shaped spaces with zig-zag walls, as in ‘Illusory Room” or “Black Interior with Disappearing Stairs”.

I liked using this method as I believe it gave the interiors an even more dreamlike appearance, and the painting that I am most happy with of this kind is A Fiction of Paint. I think this painting’s panoramic format gives it a more dramatic appearance, and tried to add to this impact by adding symmetry with the staircases on either side. In this painting the furniture is more distorted than ever, and is dotted around at random intervals, making it one of the most surreal canvases I think I have created during this project.

Another of the paintings I feel worked best is the painting where I used the method of distorting a photograph in photoshop before painting it. This painting is Bathroom Metamorphosis, which is also the only painting developed entirely from an internet image. I chose the image because I liked its fairly simple but effective composition and colour-scheme, which I made more striking by exaggerating the lighting. I also altered the shape of the objects in the image, to give them a more dramatic and unreal appearance, as if sinking and shifting and changing shape.

Overall, I have found this project a very interesting opportunity to develop my existing style and to explore one of my favourite artistic themes to the full, as well as experimenting with new elements of style and working methods.

Here are my two practice paintings in preparation for my next canvas.

I prefer the design and colour-scheme of the second painting. I added the extra windows as an afterthought, after deciding that the window was one of the parts that had worked best, and also that this addition would make the interior look more unreal. So I added windows to hover in and around the fireplace.

Although this works well in my practice painting, now I have begun the actual painting I am particularly happy with the way that the wall and fireplace have turned out, so am unsure if I want to cover it up with the extra windows! I will have to see if it needs them after I have done all the other areas of the painting.

I have also included an image of my canvas in progress.

I am currently working on designs for my next painting.

Earlier last week I visited The Bull, a pub / inn in Long Melford, and sketched different aspects of the building’s interior.

I also photographed these views to refer to later, when depicting these things in greater detail.

I have currently completed a ‘practice’ painting from one of the designs, planning out how the painting and its colours would look, and am going to work on a couple more designs before choosing the one to paint on the large canvas which I have just primed.

Here is the final version of my painting ‘A Figment of Paint’. I used one of the largest canvases that I have done so far for this project.

I think that the image worked well on a larger scale. I painted the compostion true to my plan, except for slightly altering the lamp and chair to be more distorted than they were in the original picture.