Lucy Raverat: When is Now
In much of Raverat鈥檚 earlier work interior subjects formed the basis of her compositions. It was in these works that one of her most characteristic motifs first appeared: figures or 鈥榩resences鈥�, suggested rather than delineated, sometimes even sculptural. From the beginning these presences always seemed benign 鈥� a memory of someone or a welcome visitor or simply the desire for company 鈥� rather in the spirit of the 鈥榮trangers鈥� often to be found beside fireplaces in seventeenth and early eighteenth century interiors, placed there (some speculate) as a wished-for collocutor or a person to whom a soliloquy may be addressed.
Largely absent from Raverat鈥檚 middle period, when her paintings were strongly marked by travel experiences in Brazil and the Caribbean, the strangers now return in these newest, more landscape-oriented works, which draw more closely on her familiar home environment. But their role has evolved. Sometimes appearing in pairs or groups rather than singly, they occupy less space in compositions into which they are more integrated as onlookers, possibly on occasion to be identified with the artist herself.
Another recurring image is that of birds in flight, reinforcing a sense of the passage of the seasons and the inevitability of change. As always in Raverat鈥檚 work, in these new paintings it is the medium itself which carries the strongest underlying message. Working intuitively with brush, sponge, palette knife, masking stencil or even directly with her hands, Raverat has fashioned in her oils a medium which is constantly on the move, expressing the flow of an energy directed towards increasingly broad, universal issues. Such issues, however, are punctuated from time to time by quieter, lyrical compositions like Lady in red, Prospect Park: a reverie on the artist鈥檚 recent visit to Brooklyn on a summer鈥檚 day.
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In much of Raverat鈥檚 earlier work interior subjects formed the basis of her compositions. It was in these works that one of her most characteristic motifs first appeared: figures or 鈥榩resences鈥�, suggested rather than delineated, sometimes even sculptural. From the beginning these presences always seemed benign 鈥� a memory of someone or a welcome visitor or simply the desire for company 鈥� rather in the spirit of the 鈥榮trangers鈥� often to be found beside fireplaces in seventeenth and early eighteenth century interiors, placed there (some speculate) as a wished-for collocutor or a person to whom a soliloquy may be addressed.
Largely absent from Raverat鈥檚 middle period, when her paintings were strongly marked by travel experiences in Brazil and the Caribbean, the strangers now return in these newest, more landscape-oriented works, which draw more closely on her familiar home environment. But their role has evolved. Sometimes appearing in pairs or groups rather than singly, they occupy less space in compositions into which they are more integrated as onlookers, possibly on occasion to be identified with the artist herself.
Another recurring image is that of birds in flight, reinforcing a sense of the passage of the seasons and the inevitability of change. As always in Raverat鈥檚 work, in these new paintings it is the medium itself which carries the strongest underlying message. Working intuitively with brush, sponge, palette knife, masking stencil or even directly with her hands, Raverat has fashioned in her oils a medium which is constantly on the move, expressing the flow of an energy directed towards increasingly broad, universal issues. Such issues, however, are punctuated from time to time by quieter, lyrical compositions like Lady in red, Prospect Park: a reverie on the artist鈥檚 recent visit to Brooklyn on a summer鈥檚 day.
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