… as told by Deborah Worsfold
Black Stripe
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, white frame
Without the stripe the work falls to pieces. I painted the whole thing just so I could lay that black stripe into the piece. It helps to move you around and yet it doesn’t dictate overly. It suggests that it functions as part of the tablecloth pattern and yet if you follow it you will see it breaks away. It sits instead on top of the vibrant palette and animates the space through forcing your eye to move around it. This was painted from life in my studio which is not always the case. I like to live with some still life until I see something in it. In this case there isn’t much to the flowers. They are more a herd of vases then they are pretty but then this allows me to work with form. Part of the decision to paint a still is whether I want to see through the vase and abstract or paint form. I have a vase collection so sometimes I have to paint it twice because I cannot decide.
Lifeboat
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, white frame
What a great appetizer dish. This is another studio work, rather nostalgic using a futon as a dramatic backdrop. It was interesting to paint the flowers in shadow and yet still communicate colour as well as shadow. Monet showed us that shadows can be stunning colours. I once painted a body of work concentrating on shadows. They lie all the time. And they are rather boring if you leave them gray. They don’t work unless the colour relationship does to all that is around. I was thinking that I wouldn’t tell you to see if you noticed the reflection in my grandmother’s old ruby vase. Its handsome colour is wonderful to paint, a shift from white vases. My easel and I are reflected in the glass and certainly my easel is a lifeboat.
Presence
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, maple frame
Risking the sentimental is treacherous for a painter. And yet what in life worthwhile isn’t attached to someone? I have never cared for pastels. I wore orange when I was child, not pink. So now it is delightful to tame the colour. This work presented the challenge of painting a silvery paper behind. I enjoyed leaving the degree of finish to you to sort out. Where does the bouquet end and the wall start. I don’t care as the overall motif is so compelling. What’s fabulous about a painting is that it remains an object even though you can make it whisper or bark and there are no rules that cannot be broken as long as in the end you make it work. The shell took seconds to brush in. It was most important to leave it alone. Know when to stop and when to go for it.
My Beeglass
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, maple frame
Nothing more than a little leftover lipstick and it made me want to paint it. There is a symbol for Deborah…a bee. My beeglass sat there with water in it while I painted these tulips in my small kitchen. I wish I had those tiles but it is not possible. I made the pattern up. I enjoy creating pattern and making it convincing. It can be an unforgiving practise as if it is too repetitive it is monotonous. So one must tighten it enough to convince and yet not so much that your eye cannot jump around in it.
Shelf Life
36 X 36 inches, on panel, maple frame
There are two other versions of this work in scale as well. This one is the wild child. There is an old saying if you want something to sell put a bird in it. Isn’t that silly! But I happened to have a piece of pottery as a bird from a friend and it flew into the painting. But then I couldn’t leave it in so I painted over it. Pentimenti enables the viewer to choose from two plains within the same painting. What is underneath and what is overtop? A change of mind is revealed in many places with the turn of my favorite brush…a filbert. It can do almost anything deftly. Or rather I can if I have the size right. So I have a bunch of them. This originates from my dining room. I thought the tulips might make spring come sooner.
Gray & Mauve
12 x 17 inches, on paper, black frame
Also known as Well Travelled, it is one of my wishes to be as such. You can travel in paint. You can create endless different places to be. This in particular screams of a multi cultured soul shown through the strange furniture. These interiors show my love of mixing colour as these grays are all mixed from primaries. The glow you see comes from the colour relationships. Grays can be tedious if you are not okay with working with tiny increments of paint. You pick up too much with your brush and it becomes another colour. Gray demonstrates the cast of colours well. This is something I have always been able to see and so then I can warn a friend what cast a colour has. This dynamic is endlessly fascinating to me. Here the gray and mauve relationship anchors the space.
Gray & Orange
15 x 14 inches, on paper, black frame
Orange is pivotal here. You can see it if you put your hand over the orange, the space loses power. The white space I leave on the surface where the white shows through creates a light source independent of the subject itself. It reads as luminescent. Leaving space between strokes comes naturally. It’s the way I paint. I do not like to fill in all the space. I want there to be air in there so the colours can breathe and let you see into it. These interiors present the idea of becoming structured with that white space and I feel they add an element of mystery. It engages the viewer’s imagination by inviting you to complete the space. The white space is paper left. I see painting as an object that acts in space. To see it you must stand in front and the space between required to view the work becomes part of the object as it acts.
Satellite
30 X 22.5 inches, on paper, black frame
I used to write poetry. I like to think that my work is a might poetic. Titling paintings is part of inventory control and to reinforce the moment. I feel that untitled work is kind of leaving the painting hanging. I look for a puzzle to solve before I decide to paint something. I need to respond to my seeing and get a feel for why it provokes me. I want a bit of my life in it even if it is small. That can be just what I am interested in doing in paint or something deeper. This series of work is ongoing. Initially I decided I would paint 50 for my 50th birthday. There are over 60 birthday paintings now. One bunch of glad’s was named helicopter so satellite came next. And I got my very first satellite dish only last year. You have to buy a house to go with them apparently.
Island Life
36 X 36 inches, on canvas, maple frame
I love palm trees. I would have them everywhere in my home if they would live. It will have to do in paint instead. I like black as a colour. It can work as a graphic too but it is flat then and tends to sit on a different plain then the rest of the colour. So to ensure that it operates as a colour I mix my own. In this way it maintains a relationship with the other colours. In a way it is even more black than black. The light that radiates in the space is rather mysterious and exotic as no light source is shown and yet it is clearly suggests through severely cropping it out. This then increases the size of the space you perceive. It is only 36 by 36 but it feels larger. Painting food is a weird process. It is never the colour you think and so it is an interesting puzzle. Brownies or fudge…you decide. Obscuring is a wonderful way to suggest depth where there is none.
Pause
36 X 36 inches, on panel, maple frame
Still life painters are commonly slammed for painting pretty things. What a bad rap. It’s all different when Van Gogh or Manet do it. I often seek less obvious bouquets and this one screamed at me, just a pile of grass and some lupins but what an array. Greens can be tricky as there is so much suggested however, not all greens refer to nature so the choices narrow greatly. Achieving definition through a narrow value range is tricky. This work I narrowed both in colour and tone and results in a fresh calm. The pause is pregnant with light and possibility. Taking a moment to turn a page is always an option isn’t it? I do think that way.
Glamourpuss
38 X 76 inches, on panel, maple frame
Further to my interest in creating space through building relationships in colour I tried a slightly coloured gesso to see how that would affect how the image acts. I see that it does force out a higher contrast palette. I found myself ramping up the intensity of colour in this piece. I particularly enjoy the grand atmosphere this work projects. Glamourpuss is an old nickname I have enjoyed. But oh how difficult to paint such a thing without sequin or sensational tricks. Overall the feel is one of enjoying the pause and the ready before an eventful meeting or of anticipating great fun. The orchids animate the space nicely both in my own home and here in this space that is known to me only in paint.
Nest
38 X 76 inches, on panel, maple frame
Although painted eight years after Glamourpuss, I am thrilled to see that I can still command a convincing space. In décor choosing blues can be a nightmare. Here my interest certainly is not in décor but the colour of light that melds with the blue hue in the room. What is colour, wall or space is arguable and yet it is convincing even though it is not certain. The life in a shadow hovers and the sparkle of outside contrasts. My sense of humour looms in the crazy white painting hanging there. But it feels good to gaze upon it. Painting art in art has its challenge which I often have fun with. This one sports a painting relative to another body of work I have in landscape.
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