Classics Meets Collage: The New Realitiies of kitty lintin

These works of popular imagery, out of their original context, reassemble in a collage style to be experienced as a new scene of a new reality. My process begins with image sampling, collecting groups of images that link together through their energy, colours or harmonious shapes. I translate the collage using oil paint to give me freedom to further merge the images together as though the scene has always existed as one. My interest in psychology and the experience of multiple emotional states comes through in my work, each new scene pauses and suspends emotional flux, inviting the viewer to question the emotions of the characters they see as well as their own internal relation to the image, this confrontation is the aim of my creative process.

Kitty Lintin is an oil painter based in South London. Since the completion of my Fine Art degree my practise has evolved to combine collage and oil painting. These mediums allow me to explore surrealism, psychology and the experience of emotional flux. My work focuses on the process of translation, initially creating a collage that takes popular imagery out of its original context and creates a surreal scene. This scene becomes a new reality that I translate using oil paint to pause and suspend states of emotional flux, inviting the viewer to question the emotions of the characters as well as their own internal relation to the image. This confrontation is the aim of my creative process. The shift from consuming popular imagery from a screen or via 2D printed media, to viewing oil paintings, becomes more of a therapeutic process and gives a sense of longevity in a digital world, where media consumption is so rapid

This painting challenges the idea of displacement, judgement and living up to expectation. The central characters’ face is replaced by a facade, expressing little emotion whilst the surrounding characters cast over their critical gaze. The scene mixes contemporary objects with classical historical interiors, linking back to the title and the idea of the inherited expectation that we carry with us.

This painting is a representation of female liberation, uniting vivid colours with heightened expressions to stimulate emotional responses to freedom. Although the narrative remains abstract, this allows for multiple interpretations to further emphasise the vast range of female oppression that is battled everyday in our world.

This piece is ultimately an exploration of the natural world colliding with the human. The aesthetic of this painting is sensual, physical and organic where the nude form contrasts with a mountain or block of flats. The reference to ‘The Great Wave’ further emphasises the strength and power of nature over the fragility of mankind.