LP 011 The Visitors
The Visitors is an original acrylic painting from my Limited Palette Series — a growing collection of small, individually numbered artworks created using black, white and just a handful of carefully chosen colours
As a child, I spent a great deal of time with cousins who lived nearby. Their home had a rather curious entrance hall — although that sounds far grander than the ordinary room their front door opened into. It had two settees, a guest loo leading off it, and a pair of iris paintings on milky glass in wonderfully ornate frames. I was fascinated by those paintings, although I could never quite decide whether I liked them or thought they belonged somewhere else.
There were houseplants dotted about, as was the fashion, and interesting little tables, including one that doubled as a revolving bookshelf. I remember it as a room of curiosities, cool and shadowy, a quiet retreat from the summer heat of our childhood playdates.
I wasn't thinking about any of this when I began painting these irises. But once again, the constraints of my limited palette produced an unexpectedly old-fashioned quality, and suddenly I was right back in that room.
It was only when I added two little bees to fill an awkward space in the composition that the title, The Visitors, presented itself.
And with it came a rather lovely change of perspective. My aunt and uncle were wonderfully sociable people, and I realise now that this peculiar room must have come alive in the evenings as guests arrived for their parties. The settees suddenly made sense!
I like to imagine the houseplants brought indoors while in flower, and two opportunistic bees following them in, discovering a delectable feast where they had no business being.
It's funny how a painting can take you somewhere you never intended to go. This one took me back to childhood, but allowed me to see a familiar place through adult eyes.
Original acrylic on hardboard
34 × 28 × 3.5 cm, including frame
Professionally framed in natural kiaat wood
Individually numbered LP011 as part of the Limited Palette Series
Ready to hang