Kid Blue Hayward 2022

Vincent Xeus brushed this painting into being with gentle strokes and a pastel palette, as if coaxing a memory onto the canvas. I can almost feel what it was like for the artist to create the painting; gently layering the paint to find the right balance and tone, stepping back and observing the canvas to make sure the subject's emotions are evoked. This is how the painting feels to me. It is a quiet moment, with a sense of contemplation, in which the girl seems lost in her own thoughts, unaware of the world around her. The artist has achieved something wonderful with the soft blues and pinks, using such gentle colours evokes a calm and tranquil mood. It’s like he's sharing a secret with us, whispered in hues. The light seems to spill across the surface, as if the artist is looking at light itself. There’s a lineage here; an artist talking to artists through time. Vincent Xeus speaks a painterly language that has roots in impressionism, but his accent is all his own.