These three paintings are contrived to appear as unpremeditated sections of the walls of my studio, covered in reference material and other ephemera. Included in these are the pictures After Tom Hunter After Vermeer , After Edward Hopper and Scene in a Museum, all of which were done with these paintings in mind, and the first two were rendered as to appear as though preparatory photographs for paintings, and as such both have been squared up for transcription. However, at the time there was never any intention to produce straight paintings based on these photographs (although I later made a painting of After Vermeer), and as such, the paintings of the studio walls imply a certain fictional position. Incidentally,after painting the first two pictures, I became aware of Adolph Menzel's paintings of his studio walls, one of which is included in the National Gallery's exhibition 'Spirit of An Age' (though his pictures are not executed in a trompe l'oeil manner) and included a postcard of one of these paintings in my third picture.

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©copyright 2005 Nicholas Middleton