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Domestic Bliss - A series of paintings

A personal investigation extending Bodman’s research through painting, ‘Domestic Bliss’ investigates and reflects upon traditional and contemporary aspects of the domestic. Pictorial spaces alluding to domestic interiors were ‘tested out’ in the drawings, collages and prints and combined in the resulting five paintings with references drawn from literary and visual sources (including The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), Spode Italian-ware, heraldry and domestic paraphernalia) to depict and critique the notion of ‘home’.

The ideas and pictorial form evolved concurrently; changes of scale, high-key colour and extremely physical paint handling elide to produce seemingly decorative, almost flat paintings on canvas. Oblique references to the damaged or incomplete and to pictorial spaces that are not places of respite are also a feature of the work, as is the exotic otherness of Spode Italianware in collision with more mundane patterns resulting in works that make the domestic alluring; the alert however may recognise that that homely charm may conceal something more alarming. The paintings suggest that the domestic, whilst seeming benign and a place of safety and reverie, can also be the site of obsession and repression.

Five works from this series were exhibited in the group exhibition ‘H.ART’ at The Drawing Gallery in 2010. Formerly based in London and now situated in Leintwardine, Shropshire, it is the UK's only commercial, specialist drawing gallery. The exhibition had a total of 30 exhibiting artists including Edward Allington, Jason Brooks, Stephen Farthing RA, Peter Randall Page & Alison Wilding RA. ‘H.ART’ also formed part of Herefordshire Art Week in 2010 managed by Herefordshire County Council’s Arts Service.