Continuing Laura’s dedication to ferns as a painterly muse, Soft Skeletons, presents a body of work enamoured with the dichotomy of strength and delicacy.
Created in her home studio after field trips and research, the paintings communicate the grandeur of the overarching forms and feelings of a place while also allowing careful interrogation of details and subtleties.
In painting the likeness of the ancient rainforest landscapes Laura draws from; composed of rich contrasting layering, interwoven with moving light – mark making is encouraged to becomes equally diverse. Gestural, primary brushwork gradually directs refinement and nuance as each layer of paint builds upon and takes cues from the last. The directness of underlying forms and compositions are still apparent at the paintings surface and sit in harmony with the intricacies that have been developed upon them.
The handmade, charred timber frames, continue the ideas of the painted surface, and touch on the ecological devastation that prompted Laura’s earliest fern paintings and hint at the ever increasing threat these landscapes face.
In their simplest sense, these works are paintings of ferns framed in timber. At the same time they also concerned with light, depth, fragility, emotion and care; hopefully striking a balance between them all and enjoying the calm that exists somewhere between strength and delicacy.
Full Exhibition Images Here