Bonnard

ON THE KELIM SOFA

Posted by Jane Wheeler

 

oil and acrylic on collaged canvas, 50 x 50 cm

I have at last heeded the advice of my dear friend Daphne Wright, who did the MFA at Northumbria with me back in 1990, to go back to where I was in the 90’s with my painting, to the self portrait. Suddenly, on seeing Aubrey Levinthall’s paintings at Ingleby gallery, I got a clue as to where I could go with this. I had already made a start with my painting Waiting for Bonnard

and of course Bonnard’s almost invisible figures, usually Marta his wife, in his interiors, are one way of doing this. Here the recumbent figure is merely hard to read at first amongst the busyness of cushion, the patterned rug and blanket.

WAITING FOR BONNARD

Posted by Jane Wheeler

oil and acrylic on collaged canvas, 80 x 70 cm

I have brought my painting materials indoors as the garage studio is too expensive to heat over the winter, and my painting space is squeezed into this room with its french doors. It always makes me think of Bonnard’s indoor/outdoor paintings, and this is a reworking of one of those I got stuck on a year ago. Really happy with how I resolved it, with Bonnard’s help. I have been loaned three marvellous books on his work, two of them from Paris museums. Also there is about to be a show at the Ingleby gallery in Edinburgh connecting some of their painters with Bonnard’s influence, so I was inspired to paint my own versions.