- Venue
- Cornwall Contemporary Gallery
- Location
- South West England
“bloom” by Maggie Matthews
Maggie Matthew’s latest exhibition is an extended display of biodiversity. She has discovered a new passion in shrubs, plants and flowers. She comments, “A new direction. I’ve wandered off the beach and into the garden.
Each piece in this series of paintings and drawings has been inspired by flowers”
.In addition she has investigated the possibilities for harmonic combinations of different tones of grey. This is visible in the mixed media canvas called “Moonlight” that is enlivened by just a small splash of pink and red at the centre of a flowerhead. These shares with the smaller work (20cm by 20cm) “Unspoken”, a certain soft focus sporangiophoric quality in the background that is reminiscent of forms under a microscope. Without doubt, a coloured flowerhead appears to stand out with greater vibrancy against the neutral tones of slate grisaille in the background. Curiously, the same is true of a canvas like “Blossom” where the grey subjects stand against the opulence of surrounding environment of blue tones.
Besides the concordance of the glowing colours these are canvases where the composition has been carefully considered. Inspired by the Cornish countryside, linear and looped forms are presented against an elegiac matrix of luminous hues. The forms dance around with musical resonances.
In some pictures background colour is employed to give a lattice or matrix-like effect. In “Watermark” there is perhaps a return to floating forms and contrasting squares of paint with engaging globular patterns that contrast pastel shades with crimson. The overall effect is to engage the eye and entertain the imagination.
These paintings are carefully worked up from many sketches and pastel drawings direct from nature – from wild coastline of Penwith to the various elegant gardens of the Duchy. The archetypal plant forms are somewhat reminiscent of Goethe’s concept of the “Urpflanze”. He wrote in 1790,” What pleases me most at present is plant-life. Everything is forcing itself upon me, I no longer have to think about it, everything comes to meet me, and the whole gigantic kingdom becomes so simple that I can see at once the answer to the most difficult problems. If only I could communicate the insight and joy to someone, but it is not possible.” In this alluring exhibition, Maggie Matthews comes close to realising both that insight and attendant joy.
