Lee Maelzer was born in London, where she still lives and works. Maelzer attended Central St Martins College of Art and Design, where she gained a BA Hons, in Fine Art and later attended the Royal College of Art, where she gained her Masters Degree in Fine Art. Maelzer paints figuratively, focusing on discarded and forgotten places and objects. There is an ominous tone to Maelzers work and sense of foreboding in the scenes captured, abandoned rooms and spaces make the viewer wonder what happened to this place?
I was drawn to this image above – ‘Yellow curtain’ due to the flash of colour from the curtains – I am increasingly drawn to colour, and intend to explore this more in my own work. The soft painting also produces a blurred image and I feel like my eyes search for clarity and focus but there is none.
In contrast to ‘yellow curtains’ I felt that ‘blue sink’ offered more clarity and focus and there is a thicker grittier painting style at play here, so the two together contrast nicely.
In response to the works of Maelzer, I took some photographs of a sink in my home to try and recreate the same dark and foreboding scene, just using the sink as the object to be painted. I think this has been quite successful, there is a dark and ominous feeling to the painting and a feeling of depth.
I also attempted a closer image of the tap and plug, again attempting to recreate this sense of foreboding using quite heavy brushwork and contrast between light and dark. I purposefully wanted to experiment and not focus too much on producing a perfectly finished painting.
Rachel Matton 