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Florence Watercolour Suite 7. City of London Airport

Artist: Wells, Matthew · b. 1983

Florence Watercolour Suite 7. City of London Airport

The work was produced by the artist during his RSA John Kinross Travel Scholarship to Italy. The artist has explained the background to the suite of…

The work was produced by the artist during his RSA John Kinross Travel Scholarship to Italy.

The artist has explained the background to the suite of works to which this painting belongs as follows;

"This set of paintings forms a visual journal of my scholarship in Florence. As this was not only my first visit to Florence, but also my first trip abroad, I was keen to photographically document my trip as much as possible, resulting in a number of images which fall into the traditional painting genres of portraiture, still life and landscape.

Although my intention when embarking on the scholarship was to study the old master paintings- particularly frescoes- I was also actively gathering a visual bank of images with an eye towards using these as models for future paintings.

Each painted image was selected from the bank of photographs either because it represented a specific memory or simply because I found the composition appealing, perhaps due to the intervention into a space creating an interesting image such as my physical imposition into the images of ceilings. At times elements such as the absurd drew my eye, such as shoes and an action figure strung between two windows or signs upon benches and chairs in museums requesting that visitors “do not sit” which invited a certain joy in the absurdity of an objects function being reduced to eye candy from a practical object.

Many of the paintings, draw to mind the quick snapshot and amateur photography due to the harsh cropping or off kilter angles, which contrasts with a layering technique inspired by Cennino Cennini’s directions for painting frescoes on plaster. This careful, ordered, painting process seeming at odds with the quick throwaway nature of the tourist snapshot- so ubiquitous in our social media feeds- yet also allowing for the artists personal manner to show through in their vibrant touch, imbued with a sense of humour."

© The Artist