ARTIST OF THE WEEK JEANNINE ALLEN
Telephone box
Can you tell us about your abstract painting ‘Telephone Box’, what inspired you to paint this subject?
Telephone Box” was originally inspired by a clump of trees on the horizon on the road from Saltash to Callington. Then, like all my paintings it grew into something else as I worked on it. The telephone box (increasingly rare these days) stood out against a predominantly green background and caught my eye, so I decided to make it the focus of the painting to make people look.
Spirit of Tuscany
In ‘Spirit of Tuscany’ the tracks in the field help to direct the viewer’s eye around the composition first to the trees and then to the hills in the distance. How do you develop an effective composition?
In “Spirit of Tuscany” I just allowed my eye to wander over the scene and try to capture the essence of the landscape. I am a very instinctive painter; I just know when something “feels right” and “balances” in my mind. I do not consciously try to follow any compositional rules.
Tranquil View
Tell us about ‘Tranquil View’. How do you create mood in your work and elicit an emotional response in the viewer?
As for “Tranquil View”, I wanted to create a dreamy landscape which would allow the viewer to decide what was happening in the painting. Here, the mood is created by the enigmatic nature of the various layers receding into the distance. It is this that gives the painting its power. What you see is in your own mind; many different responses have been expressed, and that is the point. There is, however, a sense of tranquillity which makes the painting very calm and restful.