The bright glare of summer has morphed into a softer light; the uniform green of trees has splintered into browns, reds, oranges, and yellows. Autumn: beloved of painters and poets for its abundance. This selection gives the scale of orange from its vibrant to earthy tones, and like a wood fire burning in the grate, these works draw the eye with their warmth, their spark of vitality. A sense of pliable voluptuousness comes through in Nina Goldsmith’s landscape, whereby the sky and hills are blotted in a diffuse application of colour, and in Jade Sturrock’s portrait, wherein the cloth canvas absorbs the paint and the artist’s hybrid technique of print and mark making creates a uniquely sensual aesthetic. Wayne’s monochromatic abstraction, on the other hand, is poised for an embodied experience of shadow and light, in contrast to John Butterworth’s approach to the same subject, which uses the high relief of a building against a pale blue sky to create vivid outlines. And the tenderness, the timelessness of Emiko Aido’s ink etching on paper: the tea ceremony, the silhouette of changing leaves. Coordinating organic themes as well as interior textures, ranging from the figurative clarity of Nicola Wiltshire’s plant portrait, to the bold words of Rae Stevens, to the entangled tendrils of orange paint on glass by sculptor Kira Phoenix K’inan, these works start with simplicity and reach outwards to encompass a breadth of affect and experience.
