"This collection of paintings focuses on two main themes: flowers and bathing figures. The flower paintings are a development of my ongoing adventures in Still Life. The discipline of direct observation has been the fuel for my practice from the very beginning. It is from the world around us that we learn how things function visually and so it has always seemed necessary to me that the artist should spend most of their time looking. I have always loved to observe flowers, although painting observation is something very different. When an artist works directly from life, they don't just look at the surface of what they see. The pencil and the brush somehow seem to offer the ability to see in and through things. To feel them sensationally. To breathe them in and taste their significance. I now find certain flowers more beautiful than before because I know them.
My bathing figure paintings are something new, inspired by a thread of artists through history who have explored the theme, most notably the work I saw at the Cezanne exhibition at the Tate in 2023. Some of my figures are based on his. I have sought to make works that speak of my experience of people and of the sea. I live close to the beach so the subject is close to me as it brings me a real feeling of freedom and a place for family time. In both the bathing figurews and the still lifes you'll notice lots of stripes and other patterns. This is something I am exploring in the same way I play with colour and shape. It's an abstract element within the picture that affects the way you read it."
Arrange a viewing |