Hope Turnbull is a figurative painter from Newcastle Upon Tyne. The artist received a BA from Edinburgh College of Art in 2021 and is currently completing an MA in painting at City and Guilds (London). The artist was shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2021.
Turnbull's large-scale oil paintings depict mundane experiences, drawn and filtered through the memory of emotion to create psychologically charged domestic spaces. On the one hand, these works reference the history of representational painting, taking inspiration from artists such as Edward Hopper, Johannes Vermeer, and Mary Cassat. On the other hand, Turnbull desublimates traditional portraiture by rejecting its standard 'pompous' quality and representing figures that enact the routines of daily life: ironing, washing, sitting and thinking or watching television.
In doing so, Turnbull's aim is to reference the liminal space of pre-consciousness, involving the viewer in a feeling of reverie that, while coming from a personal space for the artist, is recognisable by most. "I want the viewer to enter the space without barriers. As such, I use the home as grounding; when we see a bed, we think of sleeping, and when we see a dining table, we think of eating. I hope this allows a viewer to become immersed in the work and see themselves as the figure in their own space. My personal moments can be transformed and translated into their own image." (Hope Turnbull)
