Artist Statement

Kally Laurence

 

Depicting the everyday life of a middle-aged woman living and working in contemporary London, the work is both diaristic and deeply personal, while also aiming to resonate with a wider audience. I aim to comment on broader social issues through the imagery of often mundane domestic daily occurrences - sitting on the sofa watching tv,  meal times and meal prep, repetitive daily tasks .The artworks aim to illustrate everyday acts of kindness and beauty, often created with the tactility and immediacy and directness of one person’s pair of hands. A human presence is always felt but the work is never directly figurative. Often I am trying to evoke the sense of sound as well as the obvious visual scenario - a chorus of voices during a meal, the sound of cutlery touching crockery, music and movement around the table. 

 

Patterns make my heart sing. They often appear in direct forms—like the design on a tablecloth—but I’m especially drawn to taking these regular, repeating patterns, which mirror the repetitive cycles of everyday life, and then playing with them. I distort the pattern, allowing its elements to break free from the confines of the table it might be covering, spilling into other areas of the painting—much like how life itself rarely stays neatly within boundaries. I enjoy a grid, both in a traditional sense, but again then adding the human touches that will distort the symmetry and add an organic element to the scenario. eg a block of flats with the tenants belongings, washing lines and plants interspersing and breaking up the straight lines. I am also very much drawn to the accidental patterns created by the human hands - an accidental arrangement of circles through plates, serving bowls glasses and cups, each with their own patterns, be it painted on or created by the food left on a plate at the end of a meal.

 

Women Talking is a new series of work, again the women are not actually depicted in a figurative way, but very much there in essence - a towel left on a beach chair, 2 cups of coffee or cocktails on a table, a book groups cheeseboard and wine glasses. The series came about after one day walking behind two women, near Walthamstow station, who had just met up and were both talking animatedly and with a sense of urgency, eager to spill all their news to the other. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I knew, I knew because I’d been those women so many times in my life. Meeting with a friend who understood me, my life, my views and opinions, and feelings. No need for awkward small talk, just straight in there with the gritty stuff.

 

The ‘Gone Swimming’ series are all set on a beach outside Chania in Crete. it’s not a turquoise water, white sand, beach bar kind of a beach, it’s a locals beach. Half carpark, half beach, a mismatch of old furniture gathered organically over the years, frequented by families, mainly grandparents and their grandchildren, and women! Swimming, chatting, drinking coffee from a flask and talking. I’d taken a series of photos of this beach and its visitors last year and was waiting for a reason and a direction to paint it, in ‘Women Talking’ I’d found it. 

 

Often degradated, meeting up for a coffee or a swim with a friend can be one of the most important things that happen in a woman's life.

 

It is important that I feel clear about about the direction a subject is going to take before transferring it into the medium of painting. Before I begin, I need to understand why a particular scenario has appealed to me so much and what is the bigger meaning here. Sometimes it can take years between taking a photo of a scene that has spoken to me and the realisation as to just why and how I’m going to turn the scenario into a painting. I consider what elements I need to include in the painting to convey that larger message effectively and how  I’m going to use the paint to enhance the feeling. Going through this intense thought process before starting ensures that the work is rooted in authenticity and clarity.

It has to feel completely right to start, but I do still allow room for spontaneous creativity and surprises during the making  process and allow new ideas, metaphors, meanings, and visual surprises to occur.. This is the exciting part.

 

To conclude, I am drawn to the beauty of the everyday, both the intentional and  the accidental. I’m interested in the seemingly insignificant, small gestures and events that can actually be essential to, in the least the pleasures in life and at most, survival.