Lottie Cole's work explores story-telling through the creation of atmosphere and mood. Her work has followed themes with each solo show focussing on a new subject from City Streets & Architectural Settings and the Sussex Rural Landscape , to the interiors of the Bloomsbury Group and most recently those of the imagined homes of Art Collectors who have a deep understanding and appreciation of women painters. In painting imagined or real interiors Cole has a clear idea of the owner of the room, their life and interests and she sees the final picture as a modern interpretation of the conversation piece. She is trying to convey ideas of ‘home’ and what people have created for themselves. A life revealed.
In Cole's Eileen Gray Chair Series she has looked at Gray's work as a furniture designer and then paired her chairs either with other artists who Cole admires or symbols which echo themes of motherhood and fertility. Cole also continue to explore and celebrate women artists from the last century by integrating their work in to her pictures, re-contextualising them and hopefully sparking greater appreciation and awareness of their work.
Finally while there is an obvious preoccupation with content in Cole's pictures, she is also very interested in colour and the physicality of paint.
