Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Refuge


 Edgar Degas                                                                   
 Woman at a Window 1871–2         
 Photo © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London



During my second year of university I gave birth to my first child. During this time of recovery I had to design a 25-sqm place for myself. I eventually failed that. Now this project hunts me. I decided to revisit it again now. I am taking a year out to stay with the children, so my house is not a place to just sleep anymore. It is the children’s world.

This Degas’ painting tells me a lot about a home, more by the way he painted it, than the composition of it. He used the essence of colour to give the light to the space. He thinned the paint until he got its last shade of colour. The essence you can only find on the last layer rubbed off of the canvas and that is what makes the painting so powerful. To design such a personal space, the essence needs to be composition.


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