A State of Interiors
Rupert Dixon B.A. (Hons.) trained at Cheltenham School of Art and lives and works in
London. Fascinated by large country houses and stately homes since childhood,
much of his recent work is inspired by the palaces, villas and yali’s of Istanbul.
He admires the opulent idiom of the Russian, Venetian and Ottoman styles, and
combines their sensibilities with his own innate taste. Rupert has worked in
the top end of London’s interior design world and he loves giving life to spaces
that need to be furnished.
He seeks to evoke “The mood of the room removed from its utility” and he has
an almost Dickensian sense of light and darkness. Using the scale and grandeur
of the subjects of his works he aims to evoke our sentiments and sense of loss
for yesteryear.
His is an intentional mismatch of styles, and he borrows freely in a genre where
paintings are overtly a canvas for our own imagination. Rupert does not turn
the lights on - he asks us to see where the sun has gone and where the moonlight
hides.
What he does is to take many images of interiors that he likes; then he rips
them up and combines them, recreates them as his own - empowered yet partly
abstract. His is a mixed medium of gouache and heritage colours household emulsion.
The texture is both matt and gloss, the work both finished and unfinished.
This leads us into rooms, corridors borrowing from other rooms, spaces and features
juxtaposed, decoration that is almost literary. It is as if he had taken an
image from a book and recreated how he would perceive it. In fact Rupert believes
that his paintings are a descriptive illustration of his interior vision, that
these works are imaginal. Certainly with stairs that go nowhere, too many of
them, they are almost dreamlike.
The current series of paintings is called A State of Interiors (To
Let unfurnished).
Prices, mounted and framed, direct from the artist,
start from £450.