I've always loved paintings of interiors, not so much for what's in them, but more as a space and a light within which things take their place. Light and space transcend the material, or perhaps it's better to say that they add eternity to the physical because each exists at the same time.
Avigdor Arikha (1929-2010), Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916), Gwen John (1876-1939) and Edward Hopper (1882-1967) are artists whom I admire for the way they sometimes interpreted an interior. An enclosure was transformed into a means where space and light were more important than what was in the room.
The images below show the changes that took place during the painting process - a chair has been eliminated, and the angle of the light coming from a doorway was changed.
Although the painting was done from life, it's a different image to how it was in actual life. The photograph of the sunroom corresponds to the empty interior in the painting. The photograph from the backyard of the distant view towards the city of Ballarat became the view from the window in the painting; essentially making the work the adoption of two different views to arrive at a final version that looks like a single viewpoint from a light filled room.
Space and Light, 2016, oil on canvas
Sunroom, transferred into an empty space.
Distant view becomes view from the window in the painting.
