Renowned for her exciting compositions, unusual perspectives and
colour combinations, Shirley Trevena reveals how her style’s evolved.
Still life evolution
Artist profile
subject matter or, as in some
cases, thumbnail sketches that
had been turned into successful
paintings. I like this idea of
seeing time pass with images
and decided to try to reproduce
it in book form – Shirley Trevena
Watercolours. But I also wanted
to have time to go backwards as
well as forwards and that meant
putting new paintings, straight
from the studio, next to earlierB
its of drawings and
experimental work –
I’m a great believer
in the need to keep
past efforts: neglected paintings
only half finished which will never
be framed but may be useful one
day; hundreds of scraps of paper,
photos and bits of magazines
all cut out and put away either
with the hope that I would be
inspired at a future date by theirwork using similar ideas and
objects, but probably painted
more than 20 years before.
I would write my thoughts, ideas
and the stories behind these
pictures, giving an insight into
my work as it has evolved.
There are a few paintings
I started with when I gave up
my office career. They are bold
and expressive. I knew nothing
about using watercolour and soit was all trial and error. I found
out in later years that this was a
big advantage. My excitement
and need to experiment carried
me through to discover the
beginnings of a style of painting
that would be recognisable- mine. I became known for
my still-life paintings. I had a
desire to work with familiar,
recognisable items and to try
to change their ordinariness
ARTWORK:APPLES (1985)Work with familiar items
and try to change their
ordinariness to make
them special
in some way.1 2