Still Lives 2021, Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham, November 2021

Curated by Charles Caldecott

Press Release

A show is being put on in Cheltenham at Gallery 16 which is a response by a local artist to lockdown over the last two years. Faced with our growing confinement, artists, like the rest of us living in these strange times have turned what is around them in the absence of being able to go out and about, to visit other art shows for inspiration or go to their own art studios.

The term ‘still life’ derives from the Dutch word ‘stilleven’ which literally means motionless or silent life. The first heyday of still life painting was in 17th Century Holland called the Dutch Golden Age. This genre often communicated a moral message such as the fact that humans were not here forever and should not be too vain, which was called ‘vanitas’ painting. The French took up this type of painting in the late 19th Century but they used the everyday objects of still life  as objects of formal exploration in terms of colour, style and composition.

This show is perhaps down to what Rose’s art teacher said to her when she was 12. “Sit down with these oil paints and copy Monet”.

But is it more her simple reaction as a true artist to her surroundings, a nod to Giorgio Morandi, a still life artist she loves, a reflection of the resplendent colours of her own home and her interest in the folk tradition in art.

https://www.sixteengallery.com/previous-exhibitions-1/still-lives