People mentioned these artists:

Susan Rothenberg: [link] (This is an image of her work that I think most closely resembles the piece I did this project. I don't really like it, it's not really my scene, but I can see the links. Perhaps I could have painted the rough, blurry, distorted background in thicker paint as she did and maintained the same effect.)

Giacometti:
[link] (I couldn't find any images of his still lives in a studio setting but this drawing shows his method of drawing the studio with line, rather than the colour and tone I try to use, and the perspectives and directions are at least similar to what I was trying to achieve.)

Bonnard:
[link]
(Also suggested for his interior paintings, no-one really gave me anything for the still life aspect, and once again the link is clear in this image. I like his use of colour, something maybe I should work more into my work. I tend to use a lot of white and stay away from bright or unmixed colour, which can sometimes make the paintings boring to anyone who is not me.)

As for criticisms of the painting there was the suggestion of mounting it on a darker colour than the white wall behind, which i agree could work to highlight the pale piece, and i might try to do tomorrow. Also to hang it lower, but I want to keep it at that height for the sake of the viewer seeing it at the same level i was seeing the set-up. There was a the complaint that the space was confusing because the background is at different levels of resolution, in the wrong way, which i would never have noticed unless people had said. Unfortunately no-one mentioned it to me when i could have done anything about it, as the studio has been messed around with now. The painting sort of has a 2 level effect, where there is 1 flat image on top of another which i don't entirely dislike, but i can see why other people don't.

The last thing that people mentioned was that I signed my work. This may be because I am incredibly arrogant, or mental or something, but I just like signing things. It's my work, and having my name on it means people know i did it. I'm not proud of the piece or ashamed, but i did it, so people can credit me with it or blame me for it if they like, and the signature gives them an M.Black to focus this like or dislike on. And that's my final word on the matter.