Honor Jolliffe

…for joy will not fight
with the fast pace of this life.
she is not in the shiny or the new
she breathes in the basic,
simmers in the simple
and dances in the daily to-and-fro
 
From ‘Joy Comes Back’ by Donna Ashworth

My aim is to see my subject afresh and to find beauty and grace in the commonplace. In paint, I find that everyday items can become jewels or talismans, holding the miracle of small fleeting moments that often go unseen in the maelstrom of life. I return again and again to the ever-changing constellations of kitchen life: they are small landscapes as much as they are still lives.

I work in oils and my preference is to hand-prepare linen panels, making my own size, gesso, half-oil primer and ground. These old, slow, tactile methods of preparation build the painting gradually and give them a material substance and integrity.

I have had the privilege of training with master painters, in particular Saied Dai, whose weekly life drawing classes I attended for seven years – an exceptional education in drawing, looking and thinking. I have exhibited in London (Green & Stone, Sophie Breitmeyer and Highgate Contemporary Art) and Somerset (Moorwood Art, Seed, Andelli and David Simon Contemporary) and was shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society of Portrait Painters show at the Mall Galleries.