Why the pink?

I am often asked, “Isobel, why do you use a pink underpainting?” and there’s never one straight forward answer to this, so I thought I would spend some time and break it down for you today.

There are three main reasons why I use a pink underpainting, they are to do with: the themes within my artistic practice, the radiance within the colours atmospherically, the boldness.

So firstly, to understand the pink, you need to first understand my artistic practice, and what it’s all about. Through my work, I explore scenes of the everyday, relationships, nature, childhood and belonging, using found references and contemporary negative space. It is influenced by personal experiences and relationships from childhood into adulthood, creating dreamlike scenes of girlhood, and aims to question the tranquillity found while wearing ‘rose tinted glasses’, reminiscing, feeling nostalgic, and altering an unrecognisable memory.

Childhood is often filled with bright bold colours, from your crayon box to plastic dolls or toys to the cartoons you may have watched. I remember pinks, deep blues alongside baby blues, sunny yellows partnered with vibrant greens. As a young girl, the ‘hot pink’ seemed like the main colour thrust my way. I wasn’t really the type for ‘hot pink’, I loved blue. I don’t know if it was me being a little rebellious as a young 5- or 6-year-old, but I probably just new myself really, and knew I didn’t want to be put into this delicate girly box that I could see other women and girls trapped in. Blue is my favourite colour to this day and is a colour that you find crops up a lot in my artwork, to capture a calm serenity or intimate moment. So, from this, I have always knotted together vibrant magenta pink with childhood, particularly girlhood. Using pink, in such a bold and prominent way, is a direct reflection of this, and is my way of referencing girlhood with an obnoxity, the pink is here to stay, its bold and you can’t ignore it.

Pink, as many underpaintings do, glows through the paint layers. Light is able to make its way through the layers, hitting the underpainting at the bottom and reflecting that up and through to the surface.; it’s really quite beautiful if you think about it. But through this I think you can see scenes in new light, literally creating a rose tint that radiated through the whole image. Colours places on top harmonise with the pink, the way girl bands harmonised in 2004. Pink edges on my canvases radiate the pink onto gallery walls, expanding the rose tint out of the canvas and into the real realm, which is something beautiful and captivating in the space.

Which brings us onto the third reason why I use a pink underpainting; it’s boldness. I love to play with the negative space throughout my painting and their compositions, and having pink fill that space creates something special and different. Leaving the pink linework from the underpainting throughout the paintings has become somewhat distinct and recognisable to my work, I love how unique it is. It’s at the core of my artistic practice and isn’t something I see changing anytime soon.