IMAGE: Lyn Wood, ‘Small joys’, 2024, oil on canvas, 77 x 51cm

Winnie Pelz, Denim and silk, 2024, oil on canvas, 90 x 60cm

Still-life paintings by two established SA regional artists, which share moving narratives about “the distillation of life, of objects, of time, of memory”.

Lyn Wood artist statement:

I have felt small joys in finding beauty amidst the chaos of flood demolition – poignant objects once loved, once useful, now ravaged and abandoned.

The flood slipped into spaces between the past, the present and the future. A watery pilgrimage – a flood’s palimpsest. Human activity eclipsed by water.

Once robbed of their agency and value, my objects are given a sense of dignity in these artworks that hold their enduring stories.

Winnie Pelz artist statement:

Sometimes, when objects are placed together, they remain just objects: interesting, but still just objects.

But sometimes the objects and their relationship evoke memories, feelings and sensations. They tell stories.

Painting Still Life can be a simple response to colour, shape and placement, but it also can be a meditative, reflective experience, raising contemplation of still-ness, movement and balance in life.

These paintings aim to examine such memory and provide a meditation.