FIGURES IN INTERIORS

“ In 1994, I was invited to be the guest of Aubert de Villaine, the proprietor of the world renowned French Burgundian winery, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, to create paintings of their grape harvest. An unexpected idea came to me during this trip to create watercolor studies of my wife Lisa in these opulently beautiful French interior settings. My idea was to contrast and merge the relationship between figure and interior, to highlight the sensual form of the model against patterns of florals, checks and stripes. The interiors became more than just decoration but an equally vital element to provide complementary settings to the model. By creating an illusion of depth and dimension on a two dimensional flat canvas surface, I sharply contrasted the figure with the interior to realize a synthesis of forms and colors. Studies on panelboard were first painted which I later developed into canvas paintings. ”

- Wayne Ensrud