Here’s Marie on her exhibition Still Light opening Saturday 28th September: –
‘For this exhibition at Town House, I decided to get the Overground to Haggerston and walk down to Fournier Street. The whole route feels like a museum to me. Every street corner reveals a scene from another era; the industrial past is ever present and the richness of old bricks is revealed by the passing sunshine.
This collection of oil paintings I have created for my show is a snapshot of what I notice when I walk these streets. I’ve chosen to paint the facades face on, often focusing on the space between two buildings, thereby juxtaposing two elements: windows with different colour shutters, different render side by side or a pipe descending a facade, splitting the space in half. I am seduced by these interesting compositions, this urban patchwork. The streets are narrow in and around Spitalfields and the buildings are often tall leading to a sense of claustrophobia. The sky can seem absent leaving only brick, wooden shutters and windows that reflect buildings across the street.
At the turn of a corner, the brutal steel structure of railway bridges around Haggerston, Hoxton and Shoreditch cut the space horizontally. Their lines lead the eye away offering a respite from the dominant verticality. There is noise everywhere, the perpetual movement of passers-by: hurrying workers carry coffees, cars start and stall, suddenly honking, but to me there is only calm. When my eye focusses on the scene opposite me, with its shaft of light and its colourful textures, it forces a mental pause.
My collection is called “Still Light”. The paintings are like urban sets caught in a moment of calm amongst the chaos. Light is the most important actor whose role is to reveal the permanence and unexpected beauty. Sometimes it is soft and muted, at other times it creates sharp lines and projected shadows, adding new and surprising elements to the composition’
Marie will be in the gallery on the opening day and all the works in the exhibition will be on the homepage of the website from the opening morning.