Defiance 2019

Daria Theodora’s painting ‘Defiance’ is made with a free flowing brush, building up layers of colour and pattern, almost like she’s composing a dance. I love the way she’s built up these huge cranes around a central figure, a girl in a dress, using a soft, dreamy palette, mixing the pale blues of the sky with the deep reds of the crane’s beaks. The colour is almost translucent, bleeding and blurring at the edges, but then punctuated by these graphic outlines in places. If you look closely at the fallen leaves, they’re like pure abstract marks of gold leaf, flattened and decorative, and they throw the whole image into a dream space, outside of time. I’m reminded of the work of Odilon Redon, another artist who revelled in ambiguity, using colour and form to evoke emotions. Ultimately, ‘Defiance’ invites us to embrace the unknown, finding beauty in the mystery.