Painting for effect – using material process and technique to create atmosphere and eeriness in paintings of domestic interiors and spaces.

Starting with me sitting in my living room and deciding I wanted to paint the walls that surrounded me, my practice delves into an intricate web of questions surrounding themes of atmosphere, eeriness, experience, encounters, nothingness and the unknown and has had a natural progression into the realms of what I can only describe as an unknown experience of our daily domestic encounters.

By photographing and painting domestic interiors and spaces, my work attempts to pinpoint the exact moment if and when the effects of atmosphere and eeriness are created and understanding whether specific painting techniques can be the reason for these effects. Is it from the colour the walls have been painted in? Is it the subject and space that is being represented? Or does it originate in the processes that lead up to making the painting.

I am also investigating how paintings can affect our mood and feeling when being viewed. This could be through how and where they are exhibited or through the enhancement of other senses when being viewed e.g., playing certain music in the exhibition space.

In order to investigate how we can create these effects and affects in paintings I am attempting to answer questions such as, how do we represent and interoperate the space in our everyday domestic places? What exactly is the eerie and where does it come from?

My theory is that through the different ways we create paintings we can alter and change the effect they give. By writing this essay I will hopefully begin to understand if there can be a specific method for creating effects. I am using my painting practice to underline this essay to incorporate theory with practice and will use my painting practice at the end of the essay as a way of testing out theories that are generated throughout.

I have included some images of my paintings that best demonstrate my practice. This will help the reader visualise my practice before reading the essay.