The Still Life Exhibition.
Artsite Gallery takes great pleasure in presenting The Still Life Exhibition with new work from our very popular gallery artist, Graham Marchant, and introducing the work of Paul McKnight and Nikki Suebwongpat.
Still life, observed Christopher Allen (2013), is an art of objects... not only the representation of a collection of objects, but a kind of mirror image of our own sensibility... everything that is included has been the object of a choice by the artist;... their appearance is always significant.
The timeless appeal of these simple objects of still life painting is seen in new work from Graham Marchant, Paul McKnight and Nikki Suebwongpat. Flowers in a vase, or garden pot, are chosen for their abundance of joyous colour, and natural beauty. Collections of simple objects enfused with association and memory rise above the mundane of the everyday. Carefully placed, or accidental juxapositions of objects, a combination of shape, colour, and light, are infused with palpable meaning and emphatic experience.
Graham Marchant's meticuluosly observed floral displays, so bright in sunlight and deep in shade, are imbued with a strong sense of "joie de vivre".
The quiet visual power of Nikki Suebwongpat's paintings demand attention by focusing on objects and viewpoints from her daily life. Her art is the deeply personal evolving out of the starkly ordinary. She makes us notice the commonplace and creates a mysterious, almost spiritual attachment to the objects around her.
Paul McKnight's paintings of delicately decorated porcelain tea sets invite the viewer to want to know more about the tea party that has just taken place. These closely observed and nostalgically delicate remnants of convivial times evoke memories of simple pleasures in which the carefully placed china acts a scripted role, as Matisse (1951) observed, "a good actor can have a part in ten different plays; an object can play a role in ten different pictures."
The object must act powerfully on the imagination, and the artist's feeling. (Matisse)
