Zoe Lawrence

Risotto, 2021, watercolour on paper, 77x18cm

Image description: An oblong gestural watercolour painting depicts a variety of textures and marks that develop from left to right. Colour pallette is predominantly made up of warm hues – shades of brown, orange and red, interspersed with segments of blue-toned blacks. Some larger areas of wash colour interact with smaller, sharper marks, recording the lively environment from which they were inspired by.

My current practice explores the potential of re-mediating moving images in still form. Inspired equally by the animations of William Kentridge and the colour-work of Abstract Expressionists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, I am drawn to the productive tension between film/video and drawing/painting as representational and expressive media. I am particularly interested in developing a visual language that exploits this tension to enliven the act of making marks on a flat plane.

I paint abstract ‘stills’ of dinner scenes taken from a personal archive of digital video footage. The goal is to produce a series of friezes responding to the rhythms and encounters of everyday life, with a focus on capturing the kinetic and social energy emanating between diners. In re-imagining moving images on paper, I have begun to explore a variety of approaches to mark-making, extending an interest in the gestural and expressive potential of watercolour as a medium.

Email: zoelawrence22@gmail.com