Waterway 2015

Zoe Hawk’s painting, Waterway, presents an open-ended narrative of young women negotiating a dramatic, dreamlike landscape in oil paint. I imagine Hawk starting with a vision, maybe a sketch, but then letting the painting evolve, finding its own way. The soft, diffused light and the pink and blue pastels create a sense of a hazy memory or a half-remembered dream. The girls, dressed in matching white dresses, seem to exist in multiple places at once – swimming, climbing, observing. Are they the same person in different stages of life, or perhaps different aspects of the same self? Look at the way the paint is applied; thin washes create a smooth surface, allowing the figures and landscape to blend seamlessly. Painters are always in conversation, picking up ideas, twisting them, and making them their own. Hawk’s painting reminds me of Paula Rego’s eerie narratives and Balthus’s unsettling portraits of young women. Painting, after all, is about possibilities, about embracing the unknown and letting the work guide you. It's this very ambiguity that makes it so compelling.