For Lavinia Fleur, drawing is central to her practice, offering a space to explore the subtleties of our daily lives. Drawing from life is integral to her practice continually recording her surroundings in her sketchbooks, creating sketches in watercolours, gouache and calligraphy pens. Through her work she explores moments which are seemingly unremarkable, but through this she touches on the intimacy and complexity of existing in our bodies. An analysis of the environment we seemingly pass through. These drawings are then brought back into the studio and taken apart, reworked and combined with memories, literature and dreams, subtracting the reliability of the narrator. Collaging canvases, bright colour pallets, and murals which expand out from the canvas, Lavinia Fleur creates works which sit within a dream-like space offering moments of reflection, peace and intimacy. 

Hi Allegra, thanks for talking to us. What is your earliest memory of being interested in art?
My mum was always very encouraging with my interest in art and my want to be an artist. I grew up in Malham Dale in Yorkshire, and there were a few artists in the village I lived in. I remember painting with them, and visiting their studio, seeing all the colours of ink lined up, the textures of their paintings, and learning what printmaking is. I think it was very influential seeing artists practising around me, and growing up thinking this was something more attainable then a far off dream.

Who or what inspires you? How do you interact with your inspirations?
Inspiration for me comes in a variety of forms, from literature and stories, to other painters, but mostly through observing what is around me. Quiet observation of my surroundings, people, fabrics and patterns is something which is particularly important to me. I draw from life, documenting my surroundings through inky sketches and frantic notes in gouache, pen and watercolours. 

I am currently very inspired by recurring patterns I find in stained glass, table cloths, and tapestries. I have been drawing and researching them, as this offers a new material for my paintings. I interact with inspiration through directly drawing from it. This often entails me drawing a box of eggs on my kitchen table repeatedly, or writing notes about an idea or a name of an artist for me to go back and reference. This is then accumulated in my studio through flicking through my sketchbook between painting sessions. 

What excites you about your work? Are there particular themes that run through your practice that you’re particularly passionate about?
Currently, I am very excited by the materiality of my practice, as I am experimenting with sewing and collaging canvas together to make new surfaces to work on. I am interested in creating layers of transparency in my work, from working on tissue paper, to washes of paint and varying fabrics which I paint on. This is something I am continuing to develop in my practice as I expand on this in my studio. I am currently in a phase of experimentation, pushing my painting and printmaking, and seeing where it will develop. 

Intimacy and dreamscapes are themes which have threaded themselves through my work. For my degree show, I created a body of work exploring sleep, inspired by Sophie Calle’s The Sleepers. I was drawn to the stillness of these black and white photos, the peace, trust and intimacy of observing a sleeping person.  I thought about how sleep offers us a place to hide and disappear into. I began to work from the people closest to me, drawing them as they slept. Now that I have concluded that body of work, I am excited to see where my work will go next, and how it will develop. 

Tell us about your creative process – has your time at art school impacted your work or methods?
I think art school gave me the time and confidence to develop my practice. I found that I met people who had a similar passion and obsession with making, and this really helped me develop my work and identity. Art school allowed me to play with facilities I would not have come into contact with, and this meant that I really became obsessed with printmaking. I enjoyed having the studio where I could work freely and interact with other students on my course, having late-night painting sessions together and eating snacks and tea in our shared space. University also offered me the chance to do a semester abroad in Vienna, and meet people I would have never met otherwise, discovering a new city and creative scene. I think this was a very formative experience.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
When painting and drawing, I am not necessarily thinking about the viewer or putting the work in a show, but instead I am having this dialogue with myself about the work. For me, my work is an exploration of my emotions and life, using art as a method of understanding, play and discovery. But for others, I hope my work creates a dream-like comfort they can dive into, offering a feeling of nostalgia of childhood or memories you can’t seem to grasp. I wouldn’t say that my work is all sun and rainbows; it has this underlying sadness, these figures perhaps trapped in their bodies, an effort to understand, to explore these moments. I hope that my work brings joy and inspiration to people, but you can never determine how someone will interact with a work until they do.

How do you overcome creative blocks?
I am actually currently in a bit of a “block” since my degree show has finished. I often push myself to draw through the block, and just keep dedicating myself to my painting. Other ways I try to find inspiration is through going to galleries and looking at other artists’ work. I also like to go to the library and look at various art books or magazines and see what draws me in. I often find a block will come after a body of work has ended, or after a big deadline or show. It is like you have run out of energy and you need time to build that back up. I think now I am trying to take a step back and live life a bit, read a lot and then when I am ready to paint, I will begin.

Find out more about Allegra’s work on Instagram, and see her work in Starter Pack, our annual graduate showcase, running at Six Foot Gallery until Thursday the 27th of August.