Still Life
Representations of still life are at least as old as the ancient Egyptians. Five thousand years ago wonderful tomb paintings of tables filled with dishes filled with food pictured the plentiful afterlife. Six Persimmons painted by Chinese painter Muqi Fachang in the 13th century showed beautiful fruit arranged in a line, some ripe, some still inedible, the barest pressure of a brush conveying the difference between the two. The Romans used mosaic to describe in tesserae the contents of their table and the containers that held their meals.
Artists have long trained through the rendition of still life, particularly in the depiction of volume and light. Unlike a human model, still life objects don’t require a model’s fee and they keep wonderfully still. A simple drawing in charcoal allows the miraculous conjure of a solid object from a flat surface, pulling a third dimension into life.
In STILL, we see the encounters of two very different artists with still life in the 21st century. With her art firmly grounded in the European tradition, Caroline McGregor applies a minimalist aesthetic to her charcoal drawing and small oil paintings of the object. Using beloved ceramics and native plants from her garden, the artists rediscovers these treasures and reclaims them from the dark. These are softly rendered, elegant objects with wabi sabi, the simple possessions of a sculptor/painter.
“Tell me
One beautiful thing
That does not understand
Darkness.”
Poet Alex Dawson
Betty Nolan’s still life renderings are quite the opposite. A collector and appreciator of colour, transparency and Modern design, these works use as their models Murano and Blenko glass and 1970’s Tasmanian artisan ceramics (among other things). A cascade of colour pours from the top of a dressing table in watercolour and ink still lifes of favourite objects. Four favourite coffee mugs explode in caffeinated energy as the first coffee of the day. Synthetic Cubism is revisited in a MCM suite of oil painting featuring a vase collection.
STILL invites the viewer to get to know both artists through their choices and depiction of subject matter then to rediscover their own objects. We hope you like it.
