Lockdown Still Life

About

This work continues my interest in our relationship with the material world. In the first 2020 lockdown I was inspired at how local suppliers of vegetables, eggs, dairy, beer, bread and meat kept everyone stocked up, and how it created connections between people despite their solitude. This was a springboard into thinking about the importance of ‘localism’ and looking after the world and each other. A series of still lives resulted from these ideas and, after researching Roman frescoes, I started setting them within painted alcoves. This relates to the mode of painting, figuration, and how creating a fictional space is not necessarily about ‘tricking’ the eye, as the modernist Clement Greenberg would have put it, but about story-telling and cultivating imagination that expands beyond physical limitations. I similarly hope that these pieces inspire others to imagine an alternative future where we might engage more with the landscapes and people around us.