Скачать или смотреть Rose Wylie’s Studio, 2020 Mixed media on canvas, 168 x 255 cm by Damian Elwes

I visited Rose Wylie in the summer of 2019. She lives in a little English cottage and we made tea and walked around her overgrown garden. The first thing one notices in her studio is that the floor is covered in colorful newspapers. She did this initially because her husband said she was tracking paint through the house. He was the painter and bread winner and Rose quit painting to bring up their children. After her husband passed away and the kids left home, Rose started painting again in her little attic. Nowadays, she gets inspiration for each new artwork by looking at the newspapers below her feet. 

This was a very challenging painting for me to make because there are hundreds of images of football players, weather maps, advertisements, animals, celebrities, crosswords etc. on the floor. While this painting describes the unique process of this extraordinary British artist, it also tells a story about how we all perceive life through accumulating little glimpses of the world outside. 

This pandemic and the recent lockdown highlighted what I have been expressing in my work over the years. My paintings focus on people who, in the solitude of their own spaces, have used their creativity and imagination to change the way we perceive the world.

Damian Elwes December 2020
(see full painting: www.damianelwes.com)