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A painting by Freya Douglas-Morris begins somewhere between memory and alienation, the landscape at once all too familiar and yet estranged from her surroundings...
- Olivia Fletcher -
Freya Douglas-Morris
Tides
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Works on canvas
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'A lot of the work I make derives from places I have visited. Thought these trips are often in the past, they remain relevant ground for the work' she says 'in some ways the work is quite personal, becoming a mother has shifted my perspective, things from my own childhood have resurfaced, patterns, stories, and imaginings. And the trips that I reference, of places I have visited are full of memories also. And yet the work is ambiguous, the landscapes belong to no specific place and the figures draw from different eras and references, often simplified and reinterpreted to become symbolic figures as opposed to belonging to my own personal world. I often hope to take what starts as an image from my own experience and make it something more universal, where others can attach their own interpretations and memories.'
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'When I saw a cousin of mine lying on the grass in the heat of last summer, I was taken with how poised, perfectly captured and timeless this outline of a figure was, as if she was a serene illustration from a fairy-tale. And as with all good fairy tales there should be a blend of beauty and with a darker edge - was she sleeping, simply resting, or sleeping a deep sound sleep from which she may never awake?
I wanted to lay her into a landscape that was floating; the white surrounding her could be sand or snow. I once visited the Salt Flats of Bolivia and I loved how Heaven-like the white salt seemed, how perfect and untouched and miraculous. I wanted to create a similar sort of terrain. Her shadow is the under painting 'ground' colour of the canvas, so from a painting process point of view she hovers somewhere in the plains of paint. '
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Freya Douglas-Morris (b. 1980, London) lives and works in London. She holds a BA from Brighton University (2002) and a painting MA Royal College of Art (2013). Solo exhibitions include: The Sun Long Night, Lychee One, London (2018), Light For Company, Lychee One, London (2016) One place or another, Spazio Cabinet, Milan (2014) and selected group exhibitions including: The Diamond Sea, Kristian Day at The Saatchi Gallery (2017) 100 Painters of Tomorrow, New York, USA (2014) Elsewhere, (r)isse gallery & Transition Gallery, Varese (2014) East London Painting Prize, Bow Arts Trust, London (2014) Re-Define, Exhibition & Auction, Dallas Contemporary USA (2014); Catlin Art Guide & Exhibition, London (2014); Art Britannia, Miami USA (2013); New Sensation Saatchi Gallery London (2013).
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‘I start with the threads of an idea, an image I have seen, visited, cut-outs from books, films etc. A line of writing is often a starting point too, the lyric of a song or a phrase of text. But it is often then the mood of the image that takes over, which decides the colours, the editing and the feel of the painting. There is often a recycling of idea and motifs between paintings, over time a language has developed, which links the work together.’
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Works on paper
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'Based on a scene I walked past on a hot bank holiday Monday one summer. I was walking on Hackney Marshes and passed the River Lea - across the riverbank on the other side, local people were sunbathing under the trees and cooling off in the water, families, children and dogs. It was a timeless scene, like a Seurat painting. And towards the middle of the river, where the water is deepest, stood a couple waist high in the water, deep in conversation; standing just as these two painted figures are.'
'I didn’t want to photograph it, it seemed intrusive, so I went home and drew it as soon as I got back to the studio. This painting started from there.'
Tides // Freya Douglas-Morris
Past viewing_room