'Hierarchy' — Mixed Media Acrylic on Canvas, Cambridge Envisaged Series

'Hierarchy' — Mixed Media Acrylic on Canvas, Cambridge Envisaged Series

'Hierarchy' continues the Cambridge Envisaged series, exploring the layered social and architectural structures that define the city. The title refers both to the formal hierarchies of Cambridge's institutional life — the ordering of colleges, faculties, and traditions — and to the visual hierarchies of the painting itself: the way certain elements dominate the composition while others recede.

Process and Composition

The painting was made using mixed media on canvas — acrylic paint combined with other materials to create a surface of varied texture and depth. The composition is structured around a series of vertical and horizontal elements that echo the architectural forms of the city, but the treatment is deliberately non-representational: the aim is to evoke the experience of Cambridge rather than to depict it.

The palette draws on the stone colours of the city's older buildings — warm greys, ochres, and the particular cream of Ketton stone — combined with cooler tones that suggest the sky and the river. The result is a painting that is rooted in a specific place while remaining open to broader interpretation.