Quiet St Print

"Quiet St" is an oil pastel on paper inspired by a photograph I took in Bath Uk, in 2019, one of our last trips around London before moving back to Italy. I lived in London for almost 3 years and I soon fell in London with the city and its surroundings and the Country history and culture. When my boyfriend and me decided to come back to Italy we made a list of places we wanted to see before leaving UK and Bath was one of the cities we wanted to visit. I had been there already when I was younger so I was happy to go again and make new memories. Bath didn't disappointed us, the city is beautiful, I will always remember the warm color of its stone, its elegant architecture, the spa, the Roman baths, the wonderful tea rooms and bookshops, and our stunning bed & breakfast, Bath Paradise House. We were having lunch at The Raven in Bath when I looked outside the window and this corner caught my eyes, with the yellow sign: "cheesemongers" (which I late discovered being Paxton & Whitfield, Britain's leading cheesemonger for over 200 years, sourcing and maturing exceptional cheeses.) and the added bonus of a girl in red coat passing by. Depicting shop windows is something that I love and the yellow signs and the girls' red coat made me take a picture of that corner. Now that I live in Italy, on the Amalfi Coast, I am looking at all the pictures I took in UK and that I hope to make into artworks, to celebrate a great, happy and creative time for me. London gave me a lot in terms of inspiration and opportunity to develop my artistic skills. Being a feminist I like to celebrate all kind of beauty and to focus on detail of everyday life, like these two girls' outfits here, I think clothes are such a great way to express oneself and communicate with others. It is such a pleasure for me to render details like the shape and colours of one's clothes, or the reflections in the shop windows, and even the signages. I love to include signs and written words in my artworks as they are part of the urban landscape I care for so much. This is the reason why I decide to call this piece "Quiet St", from the name of the street that you can read on the plate on the top right corner. There is only one street named Quiet Street making it unique in Great Britain. "Quiet Street was so named because when it was first developed the road was made up of wooden cobbles instead of stone, making it one of the most peaceful streets in Bath. This was once in Georgian and latterly Victorian days a busy thoroughfare with sedan chairs and carriages busily carrying people between the fashionable houses of Queen Square and Milsom Street. Now replaced with shops, selling a variety of goods from jewellery, ladies fashion and antiques to banks and estate agents, one can see glimpses behind the facades of how life was in the by-gone era." (.htm) This artwork is made with Sennelier oil pastels (again, a tool that I discovered in London), a great brand with a rich history: these pastels were in fact invented for Pablo Picasso, and although he is not among my favourite artists, it is nice to think about walking in the steps of such famous artists, when using them. I like to think as my art more related to artists such as Andy Warhol for the use of colour and focus on everyday life objects, and Edward Hopper, for the way I look at people in an urban context. This, like all the artworks from this series, has been treated with two to three layers of fixing spray; nonetheless I advise to promptly frame it with a glass too, to protect it from the dust. The artwork will be shipped rolled in a tube, I recommend to take it as soon as possible to a framer, to professionally flatten it back and to provide a frame with a glass, as the oil pastel needs to be protected from the dust. Agerola, 10th September 2021