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My artistic inspiration
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| Leyton artist Victoria Rolfe at her exhibition of paintings in the Stratford Picture House |
A THEME runs through the abstract blue paintings in an artist's exhibition at Stratford Picture House.
Time and memory are the inspiration for Victoria Rolfe, of Coopers Lane, Leyton.
Miss Rolfe, 27, is a part-time artist and part-time art teacher at a secondary school in Bow.
She says these two roles are intrinsically linked and her students are some of her best critics.
She said: "Although the themes of my work are personal, the kids are really challenging and get me to look at my own work in different ways, and I am inspired by the ideas they come up with which can make me look at things completely differently."
The abstract paintings of sky and seascapes, occasionally featuring a lone contemplative figure, are described by Miss Rolfe as a blueprint of the memory with layer upon layer of azure shades.
She said: "It is about how memory is like layers of your identity, and how memories change depending on the time and place that you remember them.
"The sea is a main theme because it is constantly changing, as your memories are."
Miss Rolfe has an affinity with the ocean which started when she was a child taking trips out to sea on her father's sailing boat. She developed a love of surfing when living in Devon and studying for a degree in art and English at Exeter university.
She said: "Once a wave starts it is constant until it breaks. It changes as it moves, as memories change over the course of time, but retain their essence."
Miss Rolfe chose to explore abstract art to convey a significance beyond the visual, an identity and meaning people can relate to through a personal response.
See for yourself at the exhibition in the Stratford Picture House, Gerry Raffles Square, open until March 31.
5:45pm Sunday 12th March 2006
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