Artist Statement (2025)
Recently, my focus has been on painting skin—how light moves across it, its subtle undertones, and how it shifts between solidity and translucency. I’ve been working in a more stripped-back way than before, using thin layers of paint and glazing techniques to build depth and luminosity without relying on heavy impasto. I want to create a sense of movement and fluidity with more economy—just enough to suggest form without over-explaining it. I’m interested in what skin implies—how it is revealed and concealed, sometimes seen as excessive or overwhelming.
For a while now, my paintings have also been an exploration of colour. I make small-scale colour studies, which often serve as the starting point for the painted grounds of my larger works. These initial passages form a crucial foundation—setting the tone and mood of the painting. I then build on them with linear marks and figures—often loosely drawn in oil—followed by further painted layers. Until recently, I looked to Old Master palettes for guidance, frequently replicating them in my own work. Lately, I’ve been turning to gardens for colour inspiration instead. The shapes of foliage also influence my brush marks. I often return to my childhood garden for reference, sometimes painting en plein air. Increasingly, these early stages—once intended as backgrounds—are beginning to stand alone as complete works.
I’ve also been experimenting with diptychs, using the break between two canvases to subtly interrupt the eye line and composition—introducing a visual rupture or “glitch” that disorients the image slightly. I’m interested in how the line creates a tension: a disruption, but also a continuity. It builds on my previous fragmented depictions of the body, but now extends to the surface itself.
My paintings often depict bodies in intimate moments, drawn from erotic imagery, though their focus extends beyond sexuality and desire. In these images, skin often overwhelms the scene in its excess. The figures have a natural ease, and the compositions flow in a sinuous, almost Baroque manner. My paintings combine elements from multiple visual sources, layering and distilling them into a single composition. Sometimes, the nature of the scene isn’t immediately clear—only revealing itself, but not always, upon closer inspection. I like that shift in perception, where a painting gradually unfolds rather than presenting itself all at once. Many of my recent paintings are small in scale, inviting the viewer into close, physical proximity. I like that this nearness can create a moment of tension—what first seems abstract or ambiguous may, upon closer inspection, reveal itself as something more charged. There’s an element of intrusion in that realisation, but also a reminder that an image is often more than its surface appearance.
Lately, I’ve been using thinner layers of oil paint, often in transparent washes that mimic certain characteristics of watercolour. One of my aims is to create a sense of light emanating from the canvas itself. Previous paintings were characterised by thick, opaque oil paint mixed with linseed oil—creating a fluid, almost gloopy appearance that suggests the liquidity and mutability of bodies. This interest in ambiguity, layering, and deconstructed figures continues to shape my work. I also explore pentimento—the visible traces of earlier marks beneath the surface. I want these lines to act as visual echoes—reverberations that almost animate the figures.
Dreams, particularly hypnagogic states, remain a strong influence. I’ve always been drawn to that space between wakefulness and sleep, where forms shift, merge, and dissolve. The dreamlike quality in my work isn’t just about subject matter but also how things are painted—through layering, translucency, and compositions that feel just out of reach. I want my paintings to hold that same sense of fluidity and instability, where the eye moves across the surface and things seem to change as you look.
My paintings have long been rooted in historical influences, particularly Baroque artists like Rubens, whose depictions of flesh and composition remain a key reference for me. I’m also drawn to the grotesque, the carnivalesque, and the ways art history has represented movement and transformation—whether through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Renaissance frescoes, or Old Master drawing techniques. Previously, literature—especially myth and folklore—was a primary starting point for my work. While those narratives still interest me, my focus has shifted more towards how paint itself can convey a feeling of instability or oscillation.
I hold a BA in Art History from UCL and an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School. In 2019, I participated in a two-month residency at Palazzo Monti in Brescia, Italy. My work is in private collections and institutions in the UK, US, Europe, West Africa, Asia, and South America. I currently live and work in Oxfordshire, UK.
For more regular updates on my studio practice, please see my Instagram: @eleanorjohnsonstudio.