RSA Scottish Art
Still Life
 | Artist: Penelope Beaton |
| Title: Still Life | |
| Year: c.1953 | |
| Medium: oil on canvas | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| Description: Penelope Beaton was one of a group of artists defined as the Edinburgh School. She was predominantly a landscape and still life specialist. Still Life presents a densely woven composition of pots, flowers and crumpled cloths. The objects are arranged across a circular table and are pushed right up to the edge of the canvas. They appear to be tilted forward, rejecting spatial recession and creating a flat plane instead. This disorienting view is intensified by the fact that Beaton has not painted any shadows around the objects - they appear to exist in a flat, directionless light. She has used traditional still life objects such as fruit, flowers, vases and luxurious fabrics, but she has approached the scene in a manner that weaves all of the shapes together into one single patchwork, rather than as distinct objects in relation to each other. The painting has been executed energetically. The colours have been roughed in briskly and she has left the white canvas showing through, breaking up the surface and adding texture. She has outlined the shapes in black, which tends to make them stand out from the background. The palette is strictly limited to earthy colours, a little black and some white. Tonally the range has also been restrained, another factor which enhances the flat effect of the image. The composition is defined by the two upright vases, but the lengths of fabric weave and curve between them, leading the eye in and out of the painting. Beaton has made this composition work in two ways. It can be viewed as the arrangement of objects that it depicts, or it can be viewed as a semi-abstract work focusing on the paint itself and the relationship between different tonal elements. Now, I would like you to visualise a painting with deep perspective, wide tonal range, bright colours and naturalistic lighting. Does this contrast in intention help to emphasise what Beaton has achieved in this work? | |
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