15/08/14
Portfolio: Flora Malpas
“It was the themes of fragility, vulnerability and social
exclusion that interested me, perhaps because of my own sense of being on the
fringe because of my sexuality,” explains Greenwich-based artist Flora Malpas
of her early oil paintings of residents of a care home for adults with learning
and physical disabilities, often shown at a game of Scrabble.
Influenced by Lucian Freud and Graham Sutherland, Malpas
likes artists who use expressive brushstrokes to communicate the sitter’s
personality. “I’m interested in the individuality within each sitter and the
potential to investigate your relationship with the subject through the
painting process,” she says. This includes her relationships with her family
members, as well as with her girlfriend Rose, a regular feature in her work.
Wanting to spend more time on her art, despite a day job,
Malpas can regularly be found drawing as she travels on the underground. From
her many sketchbooks, she recently began to make prints. “I’d like to do an
exhibition of just prints of commuters – ‘67 faces on the tube’ or something
along those lines. I make the sketches on the tube, then transfer them onto
lino at home, then carve them on the tube, so there’s a strong theme of
journeys there.” Malpas’s artistic journey is just beginning, so watch this
space!
