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Statement:
I’m an artist that makes figurative oil paintings which explore the neutrality of nudity in shared spaces and how bodies interact within these spaces. My paintings connect to watery spaces, such as the beach, public pool, changing rooms and public showers.
The colour pink plays a key optical role in my paintings, as I explore the social and symbolic boundaries of colour. Pink is at the foundation of all my works and I create an acrylic magenta base to guide my first steps. Similarly to pink, my interest in social nudity comes from the constructed concepts built by society, exploring the boundaries of what is acceptable, and what is taboo. Lisa Brice is an artist that has significantly inspired this exploration, many of her works depict nudity in a variety of settings, both private and public. Importantly much of her work engages the use of very few colours. Brice’s use of blue helped me develop some of my earlier paintings. Within my paintings I work through sections, turning each part into a fragment of a wider piece and image. Lucy McKenzie’s approach to fragmentation and figuration has equally influenced my work. As a painter I am interested in the history of feminist figurative painting.
The type of brush strokes used in my paintings have differed depending on the scene portrayed. In my painting Hot tub party, the setting shows three women and a man, sitting tightly in a hot tub. Two of these figures are looking directly at the viewer, with no identifiable expression. While painting, I wanted to replicate this tense atmosphere in my brush strokes and colour palette, keeping both aspects tight, regimented and smooth. Whilst this was successful in creating the uncomfortable atmosphere I wanted, it wasn’t the trajectory I wanted to display in my degree show.
For the degree show piece’s, I decided to go back to a painting I had made previously in the year, Diving Board. I fragmented this painting into smaller scenes, turning them into large scale paintings, expanding my explorations of these settings, textures and colour palettes. My figures have abstracted facial features, the attention is focussed on their bodies and settings, and how these two factors, body and place, interact with one another. I aimed to translate the atmosphere and flow through my brush strokes, this time being looser, more expressive and textured. Behind the trees depicts a scene at the pool of the bottom of the diving board, with a variety of figures on display, all partially to fully nude. The scale allowed me to use large, loose brushstrokes, layering chunky strokes of colour to create depth and fluidity in the work. The background is a variety of colours, blended and layered to create an enclosed and intimate space, making the movement of the figures more apparent.
My second work Open Air depicts another fragment of the original Diving Board painting, a higher platform of the diving board, above the trees. Whilst the figures remain neutral, their emotions are legible, ranging from scared to brave. Despite the figures being smaller, they retain their movement, fluidity and depth in combination with the open space. This painting features primarily male presenting figures, all comfortable in their partial nudity, with swimming gear intentionally left un-painted to show the pink underpainting and process marks.
Alongside the paintings, I am exhibiting smaller studies. Studies have been a fundamental part of my practice, allowing me to plan my compositions, colours and textures. In conjunction with the paintings the studies act as fragments that create deeper meaning within the context of the exhibition.
A strong and symbolically connected colour palette that can be applied to diverse forms has been one of my main concerns though-out the painting process. Whilst pink’s domination has visibly decreased in my recent works the colour continues to anchor my work’s symbolic palette allowing me to expand the pink base line into various different tones. My degree shows paintings explore deeper tonalities and push bodily and scenic boundaries.