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. Pontecello, 2020, is inspired by a ceiling fresco at the Würzburg Residence, Germany.

The artist titled these smaller works after musical directions rather than types of musical pieces. She says, ‘Pontecello is something Vivaldi used. It’s when the bow on a stringed instrument is placed very close to the bridge and it splits the note. My painting feels like there is bowing motion because of the transparency of some of the marks. I also like that it’s a pun on “bridge”, which I thought was a nice nod to Venice.’

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.’