Reimagining the Winsor & Newton archive with Antonia Figueiredo

Can you introduce yourself and your practice?

I’m Antonia Figueiredo, a self-taught painter born in Brazil. After living in Lisbon for a few years I now call Tallinn, Estonia my home. My work is really playful and vibrant, mixing acrylic, oil pastel and collage on canvas, layering organic tones and textures with punchy colours, and setting classical or everyday shapes against pop iconography and text. Underneath the surface, I'm usually working through deeper themes such as imprisonment, freedom and resilience.

Describe the original archive images you decided to reinterpret.

The source is an archival illustration titled "Plate III" from the Winsor & Newton archive. It is an anatomical study of a rearing horse with its skeleton exposed, and a skeletal human rider superimposed within the horse's body in the same rearing pose, as if caught mid-performance. That’s what caught my attention to it, the feeling that they were caught mid movement.

Why did you choose them?

I've been really drawn to the horse motif all year, so when I came across this image it felt like a natural choice to reinterpret. There was also something about the position of them, the scene building felt so intriguing. Once I saw this plate in the archives, I was hit by the image of what I wanted to paint quite immediately.

How did you set about approaching the project and what was your process?

I always start with a digital render. From there I laid down the first base in acrylic, then built everything on top in oil, which gave the painting a much more in-depth, layered feel than acrylic alone ever could.

Did you encounter any challenges?

The main challenge was learning to use oil paint while I was using it! This was my first time working with oil, and rather than stopping to watch tutorials, I just chose to learn as I went along. It’s a two-sided feeling of discovery and confusion, but in the end, I think it works really well.

What were your favourite materials and colours?

Oil paint, hands down! Discovering how much depth and richness it added to the piece was so exciting! Colour-wise, I loved playing with the blues of the skeleton horse against the warm brown background, with soft pink and pale yellow keeping the piece light!

Was there anything about the project you found surprising?

It was a huge surprise to me how much I ended up loving oil paint. It has been a medium I have always found so intimating! I am so grateful this project gave me the reason to explore this and now I might convert my whole practice around it now.