If packing up all your gear and driving to a scenic locale isn’t your idea of a great painting session, you certainly don’t need to make an expedition out of your time at the easel.
There’s quiet beauty and expressive vignettes lurking all around your home and studio.
You just need to look around for potentials to develop captivating interior compositions.
The Roots Of Intimism
This type of painting dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is called an “intense exploration of the domestic interior as subject matter” by Wikipedia.
Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard were the most noteworthy artists who developed and adopted this style, and André Gide perhaps best defined Intimism as “art speaking in a low tone, suitable to confidences,” when speaking of Vuillard’s painting “Figures and Interiors.”
Quiet Contemplation
Interior paintings are often far more than just architecture and still life setups. They portray a quiet moment in the life of the room’s occupant and captures the light that continually changes with the hour and weather.
Even devoid of an occupant, an interior can depict a wide array of emotions. It gives the viewer an opportunity to reflect and interact with the artist, and to consider what the painter might have been thinking when he created the piece. It also allows the viewer to insert his own concept and interpretation as he sees it. The story the painting tells can be the story of the viewer, and give him or her a sense of ownership of the scene and commiseration of similar emotions with the artist.
Express Yourself
Painting an interior is far more than a representation of objects. It can be a personal expression and can convey how you feel as much as how something appears.
The objects you choose, the way in which they are placed in the scene and even the amount and angle of light reveals something to the viewer. The scene itself can be telling. There’s no limit in what you can express within the confines of your four walls.
Take An Internal Expedition For Inspiration
Traveling to the South Pacific like Gaugin may not be in the cards for you, but you can express yourself as dramatically or as quietly as you choose. Painting, after all, is the external representation of an internal emotion.
The more you examine yourself, the more you’ll be able to express in your painting. Learning the technical aspects of painting is just a part of being an artist. Many fine technicians can lay paint on a canvas and produce a recognizable image, but imbuing a little piece of yourself within the weft and warp of the canvas is what really creates art.
