Julie Puchalski - 'Petites fleures'

Thursday 9 November - Sunday 17 December 2017

“I have collected small vases for many years. I’ve collected from my family hand-me-downs, travel souvenirs through to treasures found in junk shop or car boot sales. Their variety and shapes, sizes, materials, textures and colours seem unlimited. The diversity found in a single functional object (to hold a bunch of flowers) has held an ongoing fascination for me.

I am inspired by the works of artists like Giorgio Morandi who spent almost an entire life-time painting a combinations of vases and other objects. Flowers are related to my love of gardening and, in this series of sixty paintings, I have used the smaller and often overlooked flowers that, when viewed up close, can surprise you with their many shapes, colours and structural complexity.

The combination of flowers in vases was a natural progression of these two interests, and has been a popular topic many of my favourites artists. Through many centuries and art movements, artists have painted vases of flowers, from the serene and the sombre works of Jean-Baptiste Cardin and Henri Fantin-Latour to the colourful and expressive works of Odilon Redon and Vincent Van Gough, vases of flowers have presented challenges, inspiration and art works which have amazed and pleased both artists and their admirers.”