New paintings completed recently in London are a continuation of the themes and discoveries that preoccupied the artist during her residency. Each is based on a detail of a fresco by Tiepolo, in Venice as well as other cities. Dolce, 2020, is inspired by The Glory of Spain in the Royal Palace, Madrid.

The artist titled these smaller works after musical directions rather than types of musical pieces. She says, ‘Dolce – I’ve wanted to use this title for ages. It means “sweetly” in music and the purples and pinks in this painting felt right. I thought it was nice to have something coming back to the idea of sweetness, which I’m often looking at in my work.’

For the artist, working from reproductions provided a shift in focus and intensity – of colour palette especially. She explains, ‘With these, I brought colour back with quite a lot of intensity. I think reproductions idealise the colours to some degree and I have exaggerated it further. These works are about departing from the figurative source and arriving at a more gestural, abstract new place, where marks and colour can stand in for the attitude of the original painting but with more ambiguity and maybe more openness. I made studies first and then worked from the study as much as possible to get more separation from the figuration and focus on the paint and mark making. I think they still retain a sense of illusionary space and some of the feeling of the escapism that Tiepolo’s work has.’