The Stairway 2020

Zoe Hawk created this eerie painting, *The Stairway*, sometime in the 20th Century, probably in her studio, using oil paint on canvas. I can just picture Hawk applying those flat blocks of colour, carefully filling in each little dress shape. She’s really thought about how she could position each of these figures, each with their own individual gaze, within this strange twilight zone of a forest. I bet she was thinking about Balthus, the way he arranged his figures in odd ways and unreal spaces. These girls seem to be moving in different directions, almost like automatons, and the only way to climb is upwards – into the unknown, the dark! I love the way she's created such a claustrophobic scene by using a restricted palette of greens, reds, yellows and greys. It’s like a dream, or maybe a nightmare, and it really messes with your perception of space and scale. It reminds me that painting can give us new ways of seeing and thinking about the world.