August Heat

Author: Erin Murphy
Oil on linen
Size: 100x70 cm
 
 
All windows in my studio give onto roofs and cityscapes. In the height of summer, the heat is so intense that it seems to blanch the dry, hot tiles like bones in a desert. There is something very satisfying about painting in stark monochrome- a kind of succinct quality like some simple statements you find in a poem. They just strike you or ring like a truth. Straightforward, almost no shadows to hide in since there is light there, too. Heat, like light comes from all directions. I passed those hot August days in full sun in order to paint this painting.