Pears and a Vessel

‘White Pears with Barry Stedman Vessel’
oil and graphite on canvas/(diptych) 12″ x 16″ and 20″ x 16″/May 2016

At last a new painting, this one a diptych, featuring a selection of the familiar white pears composed and observed in relation to one of the precious objects of the household, aBarry Stedman ‘slab vessel’ acquired after being seen and fallen in love with during an exhibition at the Ruthin Craft Centre last year, the thing itself pictured below (actually displaying the reverse plane of similar design).

Barry Stedman ‘slab vessel’

Obviously, the representation of the vessel and the drawn/painted image upon its planar surface is a painterly response to the thing seen rather than a direct transcription whilst attempting to be faithful to the design.
Being preceded by the recent series of paintings that featured the compositional device of ‘blurring’ some objects-as-observed behind a translucent screen of tracing paper inspired by examples of Edmund de Waal‘s installations of his work, this development might be regarded as continuing something of a visual dialogue with contemporary ceramicists.