Candidates Exhibition, RWA

Six artists have been selected for the Royal West Academy Academician Candidates Exhibition. The exhibition is in the Kenny Gallery and is for artists with proven track record within their field, it’s a significant achievement to get to the final stage of the nomination process. Open to the public at the RWA, Bristol from 12th September - 18th October.

‘Umbilical’, ‘Gathering’, ‘Constant Beat’ and ‘Mend’ are the four paintings that will be presented at the Candidates Exhibition. Rooted in observation of the natural world and using the familiar motifs of landscape painting, this grouping of work infers a link to the body and to human experience.

Reflecting on rhythm and in turn how we are subconsciously attuned to our heartbeat… this one is titled 'Constant Beat’. Like our bodies, the planet has it’s own pulse and continuity - everything being in a cycle of renewal and decay. In this landscape, abundant flora holds the viewer in a kind of paradise but with a sense of abandon and possible entrapment. On circular format, I’m exploring the theme of life cycles, using the familiar motifs of floral painting to mirror our own experience; old giving way to new and humbling of this process.

I’m drawn to anthropomorphism and ‘Gathering’ is a playful painting, a familial portrait. I often think of the flowers and plants within my paintings as characters acting out scenarios, expressing harmony or imbalances in relationships, exploring frictions and friendships. It can be an act of soul searching, personal reflection or more whimsical in theme.

I was struck by an image of Brancusi’s sculpture 'Infinity Column’ while I was painting ‘Umbilical’. The russet red form that rises through the centre of my painting is a recall to Brancusi’s visualisation of the infinite, something beyond the tangible, approaching the spiritual. In my painting, the column is like an umbilical, a cord of life that runs through us, generationally unbroken through procreation, with the potential to be infinite. I was thinking about this and consequently the breaking of the chain - in terms of both our individual responsibility and our environmental instability.

This painting ‘Mend’ is themed around the transition of one state to another. A healing process and mending of a wound is represented by a snapped stem; where it is calloused and scabbing over it is changing and regenerating. The hot reds of plump petals sit within rusty foliage symbolising various stages of fertility, aging and life cycles.