Artist Spotlight: Bridget Moore

We spoke to Bridget Moore, member of the RBA, who works primarily in gouache, about her artwork inspired by memories, imagination, and everyday observations.

Welcome, Bridget! You say that memories of your childhood are your main source of inspiration in your paintings, can you talk a bit about your upbringing and if there are any particular memories you often return to?

As kids my brother and sister and I spent an awful lot of time at my grandparents’ home which was just down the road from us. It was a rented property, a black weatherboarded bungalow and the large garden had an orchard to boot and a lot of space to play in. 

The tenancy had been granted for their lifetime but when they both died, the bungalow was torn down and the orchard and the garden was uprooted. No sign of it was left. This happened when I was still a student and I suppose as a reaction to that I wanted to capture a vision of it while I still had a sharp image of it in my mind. Images over time have shifted, but it continues to be a source of inspiration after all these years.

So too does an intense memory of being taken to a fairground which has left an image stuck in my head that funnily enough I've not attempted to paint, but it has sparked a lot of imagery and imagination and fascination with that subject matter and that of circuses.

Your paintings have an impressionist feel to them, whilst still maintaining a strong sense of place and character - how do you portray this balance?

The impressionist feel that my paintings might have to them is probably because I am trying to capture an intangible thing as I work from memory and sometimes imagination. The feel of something comes across as an impression because I am relying on imagery in my head. Once I start working, it becomes clearer to me what direction the painting will take, but the painting itself dictates the way it goes as much as I try to impose my will upon it. At the end it does have to make some sort of sense.

Your work often has an earthy palette, what draws you to working with these colours?

Latterly my work has a more earthy palette but that is in part due to the subject matter I am trying to convey and get across – I think circuses, inspired by my memory of being taken to a fairground, as well as all the sparkle and decoration, have an earthy darker quality underneath, which is an aspect I am drawn to. 

I love colour and do try to push it and experiment with it, but palettes do change and evolve over years. Perhaps I am naturally drawn to warm colours at the moment.

Are you able to talk about your use of gouache and why you work primarily in this medium?

Originally I used gouache to do small studies as a way of working out compositions for larger oil paintings. When I had small children and not as much time, I turned to gouache as I could work more quickly with it. However, over the years small gouaches have become far more important and considered paintings in themselves and as such, they form a large part of my body of work. 

I am drawn to its opacity and the way you can layer colours. I also love the immediacy of gouache and I do push it around quite a bit, although it can be quite a tricky medium to deal with.

Your paintings have a sense of fun movement and of joy, particularly ‘Two Hoops’ and in ‘Dance Off’, how do you go about creating a sense of fun and depicting movement?

I think it is the subject matter that lends itself to a painting having movement and a sense of fun but that is not really my intention when I start. For me, it is all about composition and the balances and stresses involved in that. A good sense of composition is my main goal when constructing an image.

What are your favourite things about being a member of the RBA and can you speak of the community that it has created?

The RBA was the first society I became a member of. The members have come and gone but as a group and as a community we are diverse artists, but like minded in trying to produce work and we share the problems encountered in that. As most of us are working in isolation it is a welcome thing to come together. We always look forward to our shows and love discovering that little gem a fellow painter has produced.

(Top to bottom) Bridget Moore, Little Bandit | Bridget Moore, Two Hoops | Bridget Moore, Dance Off