GILL ROCCA
For the paintings to work, they have to look
real enough, like they could be a real place
in their memories or in their mind’s
eye, that’s lovely for me because I can
see that they are then bringing their
own narrative to it all.”
Are they landscapes that Gill could
only have painted while she was living
in a city?
“That’s a really good question and
it’s something I’ve thought about a
lot,” she admits. “I’ve wondered if
I would be painting these landscapes
if I was living in those landscapes.
I don’t know the answer to that, but it
makes me fearful of leaving London!”
Despite not being based on real
locations, her landscapes are kept
cohesive by a masterful approach to
brushwork and an admirably strict
adherence to a limited palette of justfive colours: French Ultramarine,
Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna, Yellow
Ochre and white. The only time Gill
ever deviated from this was adding
Alizarin Crimson for an older series
of dusk paintings. Other tubes of
pigment, bought some 20 years ago
yet untouched ever since, sit on her
studio windowsill next to an old
wooden palette crusted with paint.
It belonged to her first oil painting set,
which Gill’s granny bought for her
when she was just 16.
“I keep it there to remind me that
my palette hasn’t changed at all.
Those are the colours that work for
me and I’m endlessly fascinated by
everything that they can produce.”
http://www.gillrocca.com