The Self-Isolation Residency 16th April 2020: Day 18

Jack the Ripper's Bedroom, Walter Sickert, 1907, Manchester Art Gallery.

As I've been working on this project I've been constantly reflecting upon on it and on the current painting' although I am relatively happy with the painting, indeed I am very some areas of it, I do feel that it isn't the final piece in this project. I don't feel that it extends far enough towards exploring the concept of self isolation and social distancing.  Throughout this process I have felt that this project should be more about isolation and to emphasis that I feel that the painting should have a darker, more claustrophobic atmosphere about it.

As I've spent more time reflecting upon this over the last day or so I have found myself thinking about a painting by Walter Sickert that I am very familiar with; 'Jack the Ripper's Bedroom (top of post). My familiarity with this painting comes form visiting Manchester Art Gallery, where it is exhibited, but as a student myself and then later in life when I have been giving lectures to other students there. The dark and oppressive atmosphere that Sickert managed to convey in this painting made an early impression upon this young art student, one that has probably stayed with me for 40 years. In many ways what I really wanted to achieve with my painting is exactly what is happening in the Sickert, it has to be said that I feel I was distracted away from this initial feelings by other ideas, but now I feel that my first instinct was the correct one.

The Sickert has a wonderful feeling of intensity which I would really like to capture in my own painting; of course the title of the Sickert painting does add some weight to that. There is no real evidence that this was actually the bedroom of Jack the Ripper, Sickerts landlady at 6 Mornington Cresent, Camden apparently told him that she suspected that the previous tenant of the room was the infamous serial killer and Sickert just couldn't resist using the idea. But it isn't just the title that carries this weight  of tension, it is also the arrangement of the open doorway and the placement of the furniture along with the subdued lighting that add an element of mystery to the seen. Is that chair actually empty, oor is there a suggestion of somebody sitting there? No, surly, it's a trick of the light, isn't it? Once again I hear another echo of my own ideas, I intended for the chair in my painting to represent me in the painting thereby causing an ambiguity is to whether I'm really in the scene or not. If I can achieve half the feeling of atmosphere and claustrophovia that the Sickert does I would be more than happy.

And so to this end I have decided to start a new version of the painting and to go back to my original idea of it being much darker and more intense. I've started off by doing a could of new sketches (bottom of post), the scene has been rearranged somewhat to centralise the window, in homage to the Sickert,  and also to reference both side walls to give a feeling of enclosure to the scene. however starting this new version of the painting doesn't mean that I won't finish the current painting. It is actually very unusual for me or I would say most artists who work in oils to only have one painting in process at any one time; so tomorrow I start on the new painting but I will actually be working on both pieces at the same time.