CHAIN OF FLOWERS

This exhibition showcases new work by Cambridge-based artist Miranda Boulton. Her practice explores ideas around memory and time, referencing the traditions of still life painting and abstraction with a mix of vigorous and delicate marks. She circles around the history of the genre, looking for artists that intrigue her. Two such artists are the Norwich School’s Emily Stannard  and Eloise Harriet Stannard.

Boulton’s process starts with a series of oil paintings on paper made from the memory of historical still life paintings. Painting away from the original memory, she then moves on to canvas, allowing her paintings to write their own narrative in layers of paint and marks. Paint is built up and scraped back, and different marks are used: thick impasto, large blurry gestures, ribbon-like brushstrokes, intricate details, and buttery spray paint.

The finished paintings retain an oblique feel of the original source, gently nudging association. They reveal themselves to the viewer through the speed and rhythm of the marks. As meditations on the history of art, they create a ‘Chain of Flowers’ passed between generations of artists, shining a light on the past in the present.