Reimagining the Still Life
Home become an artist’s muse during the last couple of years. There has been time to re-evaluate relationships to everyday objects that surround us.
The things we own; the objects in our home, the furniture, the clothes, the food – tell stories about who we are.
Still life captures these suggestive lives and worlds.
Introducing Still Life to your home can be a great way to create interesting contrasts or interplay depending on your style.
Styling around this can be fun and playful; where life truly can imitate art.
Meet our contemporary artists reimagining the still life and elevating this art from as a reflection of what it is like to live today – from a range of perspectives.
Dawn’s work celebrates the intimate relationship between an item and its owner by illuminating the context in which she presents it. Dawn captures the indoors as an art form in a bold imaginative way, interplaying memories of her childhood in Barbados with life today. Dawn’s work is stunning, clever and mesmerising.
What inspires your work as an artist?
“My work is inspired by childhood memories of Barbados and daily experiences.”
What does your work mean to you?
“My work is a means of communicating my experiences and how they affect me and those around me.”
Iona’s work is based on memory, an emotional response to place, time or event. Whether walking through Renoir’s garden in the South of France to time spent on the Cornish coast, she takes inspiration from all around. Iona’s still life is a form of self-expression, beautifully verging on abstraction.
What techniques do you use?
“I am a painter and printmaker. My colourist prints are monotype silkscreens. I paint directly onto the reverse of a screen and then print through onto the paper – building it up in stages. There is an energy to the process and there is always an element of surprise, which thrills me.”
Naomi’s still life work is representational; bringing elements of the unexpected and accidental to give her work life and freedom. Naomi’s work is expressive, joyful and colourful. It captures the drama which exists in the relationship between an object and its environment – taking the every day and making it special.
What inspires your work as an artist?
“My home and studio interiors inspire me. I grew up surrounded by my father’s sculptures and my mother’s collections of vintage ceramic ornaments, fabrics and colourful abstract paintings. Since leaving the family home I set out to establish collections in my own home, much has come from my parents’ home before they relocated to France.”
Jack is a contemporary still life and figurative painter who plays with bold forms and colour to create uplifting captivating pieces. His work is fun and playful, taking the everyday into an exploration of colour and form.
What inspires your work as an artist?
Other artists, popular culture, and everyday life. My works become increasingly autobiographical, so everything from my past and present is often in there somewhere. Stupid conversations had around a table in the early hours, walking the dogs, graffiti, sports, the pub, relationships, still life and the landscapes and scenes of Bristol and Cornwall all play their part.
Natalie is a contemporary still life painter who is inspired by the joys to be found in the good things in life; the pleasure of entertaining, sharing food and drinks with friends and the discoveries from travel. Her pieces spark both memories of the happiness of these times and excitement of more to come.
What inspires your work as an artist?
Food, flowers, travel, colour, clothes… all the good things! I love interiors, hosting people round for dinners, strolling through markets and eventually all these elements find their way onto the canvas somehow.
