Institute building

I started this painting in the middle of the pandemic lockdown, when we were only allowed within a 5 km radius of our homes. I passed this building often on my daily walks, which I’ve since learned is named the Institute building, after it’s original use as the Institute for the Deaf and Blind. It has also been used temporary as a hospital during an influenza outbreak and later by the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War.

Gothic architecture hasn’t been a focus of many of my paintings but I was drawn to this building nonetheless. It is also probably one of the most detailed paintings I’ve done so far, completed in small increments over the duration of our COVID lockdown here in Sydney.

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Bianca Wilson is an emerging visual artist based in Sydney, Australia. She draws inspiration from the repeating patterns of man-made constructs within city and suburban landscapes. While they are the focus of her paintings, they are used merely as a starting point, being ultimately transformed and radically simplified into a scene much less recognisable. Most notably, colour is used decoratively rather than descriptively, with buildings tinged with pink and coral hues. This choice is purely an aesthetic one, in order to create a scene more vibrant and much less naturalistic. The result is something abstracted yet maintains enough familiarity to hold some personal connection.