Statement
My paintings address the experience of a woman walking home at night. I create figurative paintings from the perspective of the self as well as other women walking home during the night safely to highlight the hidden privilege that accompanies the everyday experience. Inspiration for the project stemmed from recent events in the UK news regarding violence against women, specifically those walking home that took place concerning Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard, bringing light to areas of dark circumstance.
Going into the winter term I was excited by the rich surroundings of greenery I found myself emerged in during the summer and was keen to capture the changing of the seasons. During the winter term Deborah Brown was a strong influence, with particular focus to her daily dog walk paintings she had started at the beginning of the pandemic. I originally attempted to emulate Brown’s heavy use of yellow tones and thickly layered paint. However, I came to realise this use of purely impasto style painting did not align with my own artistic desires.
The warm yellow palette captured the changing of the seasons, however as the months moved into winter, I felt this colour scheme became obsolete and overshadowed the seriousness of my subject matter. Furthermore, I decided to remove the female figures as the focal point of the paintings as I did not want the onlooker to play the role of an intruder or for the work to be interpreted as menacing. Alternatively, I wanted the audience to take the viewpoint of the person walking home.
Heading into the spring term I utilised a varied technique, combining both thinly layered oil paint with thick impasto style painting, using little to no medium to retain painterly brush marks and strokes, creating a variety of textures on the surface. The images I use as reference are taken by myself on my everyday walks to and from university, which I replicate through paint. I utilise a singular colour, blue, and create a tonal effect through withdrawal of paint, using a rag and white spirit. This creates the gentle appearance of highlights. The occasional red and orange brings luminosity to the passing vehicles. This approach was developed from research into a variety of different painting methods and artists who I have been drawn to. Such artists include American artist Edward Hopper and South African painter Lisa Brice, who’s work I was able to see at the recent Life Between Islands at Tate Britain.
Brice’s use of differing blues against contrasting red elements came from inspiration of South Africa, I adopted this vibrant palette which is adapted to my situational works about Reading. The strong contrasts of colour portray artificial light glaring from fleeting cabs and buses that pass by. The draw to capture synthetic light was partly inspired by Edward Hopper and his painting ‘Nighthawks’ from 1942, in which he captured artificial light extending out from the diner into the darkness of night. I adopted the use of blue to represent the dark of night time, as a nod to the historical implications of navy blue being associated with purity and safety.