Felice Trees 2016

Felice House created this mysterious portrait in oil, with her paint handling bringing a sense of the temporal, the ‘in-betweenness’ of things. The portrait has a luminous, almost ethereal quality. The artist uses thin washes of colour to build up the image, and there's a real sense of layering and transparency. The paint is applied in loose, gestural strokes, especially in the trees, giving the impression of movement, as though the forest is alive and breathing. The brushstrokes around the figure's face are more controlled, yet still retain a sense of fluidity. Look at the way the light falls on her cheekbones, it's almost like a memory of a touch. I’m reminded of Alice Neel, in the sense of capturing a likeness which is not necessarily flattering, but truthful. Both artists seem interested in the psychological space of portraiture, leaving room for interpretation. Ultimately, painting is an embrace of ambiguity, a search for meaning rather than a declaration of it.