Claerwen James, Flowers, 21 Cork Street, London W1, until 18^th April 2015

Girl without a Basket of Flowers, 2014
(c) Claerwen James,
courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and New York

James’s striking images of young female subjects are painted from photographs whether family snapshots or discovered in junk shops, magazines or even car boot sales. In some you will see inspiration from Degas, Picasso (early) and Corot.

Green Girl, 2015
(c) Claerwen James,
courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and New York

The result, however, is not a portrait but a study of a female figure staring outwards from the canvas with an enigmatic expression inviting us to decide what we may be seeing. The artist says ““Thresholds of one kind or another are approaching. Perhaps they are here. Perhaps they are already past. A photograph is fraught with the sense of time passing – the impassable gulf between that instant and this. Unfulfilled potential and paths not taken.”

Girl I saw in a magazine, 2014
(c) Claerwen James,
courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and New York

 http://www.flowersgallery.com