Still Alive

Contemporary still life painting by members of the Federation of British Artists

Produced by The Federation of British Artists Limited to accompany the exhibitionStill Alive: Contemporary still life painting by members of the Federation of British Artists16 to 21 SeptemberMall Galleries, The Mall London SW1

© The Federation of British Artists Ltd

All artwork copyright the artists. The organisers would like to thank the copyright holders for granting permission to reproduce the work illustrated in this catalogue.

The Federation of British Artists17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD

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Registered Charity No. 200048

The still life - a work of art depicting inanimate subject matter, from fruit and flowers, pots and bottles, and well beyond - has a long history, stretching from the present day as far back as Greek and Roman civilisations.

The still life was particularly popular throughout the Renaissance when it was used significantly in religious painting, and with seventeenth century Dutch painters where it often conveyed a person’s wealth, mortality, or both simultaneously. At the end of the nineteenth century, with the advent of Modernism, it became a starting point for abstract experiments. The still life has never ceased to captivate the attention of artists and audiences alike.

Still Alive, an exhibition of contemporary still life paintings by members of the Federation of British Artists at the Mall Galleries, is proof aplenty that the genre is as alive and well in the twenty-first century as it ever has been.

Perhaps the enduring appeal of the genre owes to the fact that, to quote Professor Anthony Savile, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London: “through [still life] pictures…we find in our everyday domestic surroundings a delicacy and tenderness that we would otherwise quite miss.”

The Still Life

A short essay on the subject by Professor Anthony Savile, King’s College London

There are many reasons to admire or to want to own Still Life paintings. Setting aside motivations such as speculation, self-aggrandisement, envy or even the desire for simple sensory pleasure, one might suppose that the sheer technical mastery good Still Life displays is fully adequate ground. Yet for many centuries that answer has been open to question. Technical mastery of one kind or another is admirable only to the extent that it is exercised for an admirable end (think of safe-breaking or poaching or political rhetoric), and for many thinkers the painter’s desire to replicate in two dimensions what exists already in three is quite idle, ‘an elephant crawling after a worm’, as Hegel once sarcastically put it.

To answer the critic the right course must be to make out that the painter’s image does not reduplicate what we already possess. It does more. In addition the more that it does must be something that is itself a good, something from which we benefit and benefit in ways not often secured in our commerce with objects of the kind served up in life itself - flowers, fruit, everyday objects. Robust defence of Still Life in our own time will be strengthened if we can be sure that the goods that have insulated fine painting of the past from criticism are themselves liable to be renewed or enlarged by the best work of our own day.

One common thought is that while the world itself is rich in objects that engage the painter we rarely see those objects as the painter does. We view them as means to satisfy our various ends, while the artist sees them for themselves. In many cases that is true. But there is no reason why we cannot set aside practical concerns and give those objects our full attention for themselves. That is how we give our attention to their representations in still life painting. If we do it there, we must be able to do it in life itself. This answer cannot take us forward.

Still Alive: Contemporary still life painting

An alternative that has its appeal is that even when we forget our practical concerns we rarely have the penetration that the artist can achieve. So our world-directed attention risks superficiality where the painterly representation of the world potentially enjoys depth. The thought is sometimes expressed by saying that where we just see a pair of muddy boots on the kitchen floor, the artist displays those boots in their essence. He or she commands the Idea of boots where, left to our own devices, we see no more than muddy exemplars. Yet, one may wonder, if we too do not have access to the essence or the Idea, what good can its presence in the image be for us, its needy spectators?

Can this pretentious sounding talk of essences and Ideas be brought safely down to earth? A way to do so may be this; When we set aside our practical concerns, we always experience our surroundings in a certain light. We find them now comforting, now menacing; sometimes puzzling, sometimes refractory and so on. One remarkable talent of the artist is to be able to show us the light in which we experience our lived world and its contents, so that the very way in which we view them (generally unconsciously) is itself something that we are consciously brought to see by and in the image. This is what makes the painting expressive, where its subject matter is not. So in the painting we are given to experience something that we do not already have in our grasp outside it. Its possession in the form of Still Life painting is the possession of an undoubted good. Furthermore, because the ways in which we experience things or can be brought to experience them, change over time, what fine paintings can offer us today will not be just the same as what their precursors offer us. Here we have one good reason to believe with confidence that Still Life still lives. I do not doubt that there are many others too.

Angela A’Court PS

For me, Still Life is the poetry of painting. Our feelings are deeply influenced by the objects and images that surround us.

My information comes from quiet observation and a curiosity in finding the stillness of a moment. My interest is in the play between positive and negative space formed by random placement of everyday objects – the overlooked aspects of daily routine that is poetic and shifts our perception between reality and imagination.

Chocolate Plant Flowers Soft pastel on paper, 46 x 62 cm £1,100

Grey Leaves with Hellebore Soft pastel on paper, 62 x 58 cm £1,200

Hellebore on Windowsill Soft pastel on paper, 44 x 54 cm £1,050

Yellow Vase Soft pastel on paper, 63 x 69 cm £1,250

Christopher Aggs RBA

The excitement of Still Life painting for me comes from finding equivalents for visual sensation in paint. Objects shift and find their place on the little ‘stage’ of my rectangle, and as the painting develops their relationships in terms of proximity, light and colour begin to form conversations each to each and ultimately with the viewer, I hope.

The tradition of Still Life is so full and the great exponents so compelling that it is hard not to walk where others have walked. I try to choose objects that don’t get painted very often, taking my cue from the title of Norman Bryson’s great essay on the genre, ‘Looking at the Overlooked’.

Postage and Packaging Oil on board, 54 x 51cm £1,200

Still life with Cocoa Tin Oil on board, 45 x 51cm £950

Two BagsOil on board, 47 x 47 cm £1,000

Glenys Ambrus PS ARCA

I have always been fascinated by the little personal possessions appearing in early 15th century paintings of the Annunciation which the artist has depicted as belonging to Mary – a row of embroidered cushions, a precious book or a candlestick. Most of my pictures contain things I have picked up in junkshops, or when shopping.

I love patterns and shapes, putting round objects on squares and vice versa. Colour plays a huge part in my pictures and I like to repeat certain ones to lead the eye around the picture. Even if the main colours in the painting are cool, there is usually a little place where I can put in a bit of zing.

Striped Cloth with Oranges Pastel, 126 x 95 cm £1,250

PearsOil, 74 x 84 cm £1,500

Roses and RibbonsPastel, 46 X 72 cm £1,250

Lillias August RI

From the early years of still life painting objects were used as coded messages and symbols. They conveyed something more than their everyday purpose. I started painting objects when working as a project artist during the building of a Cathedral tower. I could see the significance of the individual components in the general scheme of things – however small and unimportant they appeared, their inclusion was an essential part of the grander scheme.

Humble objects are evocative – they show history, human endeavour and the visual beauty of aging and use. Still life will always be alive because there is ‘more to it than meets the eye’ – it is intimate yet worldly, simple yet powerful, quiet yet evocative. My direct approach in looking straight at an object is almost a way of forcing attention towards all these things.

Three Hinges and a HookWatercolour, 26 x 43 cm £680

Brush on Folded PaperWatercolour, 32 x 43 cm £700

Brushes on CardboardWatercolour, 28 x 40 cm £680

Chisel on bits of Cardboard Watercolour, 34 x 29 cm £680

Richard Bawden NEAC RE RWS

For me a still life is a personal gathering of collected objects that reflect the personality of the owner; ‘objets trouvé’, aesthetic forms, bare or covered with decoration; symbolic of life.

ShellsWatercolour, 48 x 64 cm £680

Sunflower, Acanthus, HollyhocksWatercolour, 81 x 59 cm £850

Jason Bowyer PNEAC PS RP

I have always enjoyed painting informal Still Life. Daisies, dandelions, a radish, boots and fish have all featured among many simple subjects. When you make a Still Life in the studio to paint from ordinary everyday things become animated by the light and plain surroundings. You question texture, colour and structure that you may have always ignored. The painting starts to ask questions about sensitivity and strength, the focus is concentrated.

RadishesOil, 33 x 39 cm £650

Herbs & WildflowersOil, 66 x 51 cm £1,800

Shingle Daisy Oil, 42 x 37 cm £750

Tessa Coleman NEAC

The answer for me to the question ‘Why paint Still Life?’ is the same as to why paint at all – it’s all about trying to recapture and understand the excitement of the first moment of seeing the image.

With Still Life this sometimes takes the form of a conscious construction, as in ‘Three Points of View’. In this painting I wanted to play with the distortion and abstraction mirrors made of the gorgeous Veronese pink and greens of the various circular objects I had assembled.

At other times it is a fleeting image that cries out to be caught and made permanent, sunlight falling on my daughters primrose yellow Doc Martens is that kind of image.

White 517Oil on gesso panel, 100 x 62 cm £2,800

Three Points of View Oil on gesso panel, 110 x 72 cm £2,900

The Yellow Boots Oil on gesso panel, 85 x 55 cm £2,200

Jeremy Galton RBA

As human beings we are all equipped with eyes and a brain and, mostly, we will have experienced and seen the same everyday objects; one of a still-life painter’s roles is to share his observations of these objects with us. I am particularly interested in why things look as they do: silver like silver, or glass like glass. How can the appearance of very differing materials and other subject matter be conveyed with paint? For me, depicting what I see largely involves putting exactly the right colours in the right places with the relevant brushwork. Sometimes, when my choice of subject suggests a story or joke, I hope the viewer will dwell on this aspect of my painting, but at the same time my main aim is simply to record beauty in our environment.

OrchidOil, 61 x 37 cm £3,750

BalanceOil, 33 x 33 cm £3,950

Spring Oil, 49 x 26 cm £4,250

A Study in SilverOil, 33 x 33 cm £4,500

Paul R Gildea NEAC

If it stays still, it’s okay. Not like traffic, horses, children or other animals. What it has is itself and the thoughts of the artist. Still Life can be put together or discovered in your own house but it is overtly a part of the painter’s thinking and being.

GlassesOil on canvas, 44 x 68 £6,000

Propped ClothsOil on canvas, 78 x 123 cm £8,000

Ann Heat RBA

A book on the work of Morandi was an early find and since that time I have collected small objects, very often glass of little value but of great excitement to me.

The work of contemporary artists, Charles Hardaker, Eric Rimmington, Barbara Richardson is a joy to see and the whole ‘still life’ world such a pleasure.

Three SproutsOil, 11 x 17.5 cm £550

CupboardOil, 23.5 x 24 cm £650

Green Mug and Blue Glass Oil, 11 x 11.5 cm £490

Julie Held NEAC

BouquetWatercolour, 99 x 79 cm £1,750

Julie Held studied at Camberwell and the Royal Academy Schools.

She has exhibited in many group exhibitions including The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The London Group Exhibitions, The Jerwood Drawing Prize, The Threadneedle Prize, Flower Central and The Barbican, London. Amongst her solo shows she has exhibited in Prague, Leipzig and Hamburg.

Her work is held in a number of public collections, including Nuffield College, Oxford, New Hall, Cambridge, The Open University, and the Ben Uri Art Museum collection.

She currently teaches at the Prince’s Drawing School, London.

Autumn Still LifeOil on canvas, 122 x 91.5 cm £4,500

Andrew James RP

ShoesOil on board, 49 X 37 CM £2,000

Andrew James has been painting for over 25 years, capturing incredible likeness and energy of his subjects, through his sumptuously rigorous and painterly approach.

Based in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Andrew James is a highly sought after Artist, who has worked on many prestigious commissions of public figures. Winner of the Carroll Foundation Award in 1998 and of BBC’s Star Portraits with Rolf Harris, Andrew was elected Vice–President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2008.

Aluminium PotOil on board, 31 x 23 cm £1,800

Candle on FoilOil on board, 40 x 30 cm £2,500

Pamela Kay NEAC RBA

‘Upon the whole, it must be acknowledged that the artists and the age are fitted for each other. If, hereafter, the times alter, the arts, like water, will find their level.’ – William Hogarth

The Arts are a barometer of the times and in an age of raucous celebrity, Still Life painting is a quiet, overlooked genre. It is, nevertheless, a joyful celebration of the innate and enduring beauty of inanimate objects.

For the painter, a cup, a dish, or a glass, have an unassuming significance, that can only be approached with a dedicated humility.

Still Life is one of the seams in the conglomerate that is the present art world, that is worth mining, and by its reticent nature, is one of paintings’ best kept secrets.

Poppies and Two Bowls Oil, £1,850

Cherries and RedcurrantsOil, 39 x 41 cm £1,850

The Carcassonne Dish of Russetts and PearsOil, £2,250

Three Quince on a ShelfOil, £1,850

Still Life for me is an opportunity to appreciate quite ordinary objects and realise the beauty that surrounds us all the time, yet can seem too subtle to merit our attention. In my own work I aim to capture calm and serenity in each arrangement, as well as the sense of space within the composition. I love that still life art can encourage us to pause and enjoy what is before us in the moment.

I feel that the strength of still life is in the fact that it is purely descriptive. Usually there is no hidden meaning or symbolism laced within the image; it is simply a captured moment in time. This is a real pleasure to paint, and hopefully that comes across in the paintings.

Lucy McKie ROI

Enamel Jug with Golden PearsOil on canvas, 76 x 66 cm £2,150

Antique Glass with Pears Oil on canvas, 56 x 56 cm £1,695

Unripe Figs Oil on canvas, 56 x 56 cm £1,695

White Jug with Blueberries Oil on canvas, 52 x 47 cm £1,450

StudioOil on board, 122 x 101 cm

Arthur Neal NEAC

Born in 1951, Arthur Neal attended Camberwell School of Art.

Neal has published and illustrated two books on the poetry of Edward Thomas.

I have a large collection of objects, some saved from gardens or being thrown away and I try to paint them with as much intensity as I would a portrait.

In oil mostly but also in watercolour I find them in various arrangements a new challenge each time.

Barbara Richardson RBA

A Few PotsOil on board, 33 x 35 cm £750

Pink Stripes and Silver Bowl Oil on board, 28 x 32 cm £650

A Still Life is the gathering and placing of objects to make a composition which explores the effect of space, shape, measurement, scale, colour, form, texture, and light. These objects acquire a new role, a new life, a new meaning and become the building blocks of the artists’ subsequent artwork.

From Roman frescoes, to the lavish Dutch 16th century paintings to William Scott’s spare abstraction, still life is a touchstone of everyday life.

Nick Tidnam RBA

Night Flowers Acrylic, 28 x 33 cm £550

Bowl, Box and LemonsAcrylic, 46 x 38 cm £785

Evening Flowers Acrylic, 26 x 26 cm £460

Matt Underwood SWLA

Born in 1971, Matt’s curiosity about natural history lead to him drawing and keeping sketchbooks from an early age. He went on to study art and art history at Salisbury College of Art and then to Carmarthenshire College of Art to study wildlife illustration, completing his HND in illustration with a distinction.

Matt began his career as a painter after leaving college, his main subjects being landscape and still life. In recent years he has returned to his interest in natural history, producing eye-catching works in collage, mixed media and oil.

Matt finds that it is often a tiny piece of information, which may trigger an idea for a work – seeing an animal or bird in an unusual location, or a blink sketch of swifts. The challenge for him is to convey his enthusiasm for the subject and capture the feeling of seeing something for the first time.

Spring WildflowersOil on canvas, 65 x 40 cm £900

Big PoppiesOil on linen panel, 67 x 42 cm £850

Natalie’s Russian CupOil on linen panel, 67 x 42 cm £850

My compositions are of day-to-day objects, manipulating shapes, patterns and colour, built up in layers, trying to explore new ways of seeing what is in front of me. Backgrounds are often based on textiles, pages from magazines, and purpose-made images. The grouping of the objects is absolutely central to the success of my work, as is the influence of light and shadows.

Annie Williams RBA RE RWS

Pots and PatternsWatercolour, 58 x 68 cm £700

Gloucestershire Pots Watercolour, 58 x 68 cm £700

High SpiritsWatercolour, 58 x 68 cm £700

Zig-Zag IIWatercolour, 58 x 68 cm £700