artwork in the studio recently

I have been working on a commission to create a site specific artwork on four prepared wood panels measuring when assembled, as closely as possible, the size of  the left wall of an entrance hall.

The goal of the project, worked upon by the client and myself together, was to create a kind of Secret Garden feel, influenced by Monet’s Nymphaea panels in the Orangerie in Paris, using photos I took in Giverny and the client’s own photos of her beloved garden and pool. The space is interior but links two exteriors and we hope might become a kind of winter garden space as well as being the entrance hall into the property.

The artworks were created using collaged photographs, specifically reworked digitally, cut up and assembled across the panels. The canvases  were built up of many layers, creating a resonating depth and watery feel , and painterly gestures of water based colours (inks, acrylic paints, varnishes) applied in gentle washes and brush strokes, in an ‘aquatic, foliage and flower’ inspired palette. I wanted these colours to be applied in transparent washes, and the collaged material to be subdued and pushed back, softened,  with multiple applications.