DON'T HESITATE
Don't Hesitate
The principal subject of Alexandra Tylee’s still-life paintings is one of the most ubiquitous and conventional in art - the flower. But due to the imagination and invention of painters they remain still one of the premier subjects against which artists test their skill and through which they discover a range of meanings.
Often you can feel the presence or influence of photography in the background of contemporary still-life painting, but Tylee’s approach is just the opposite; it seems to have come from a place untouched by the camera’s way of seeing things, or of desires to create photographic effects in paint.
Instead there’s a sense in which Tylee’s process of painting the flower subtly re-designs it by simplifying and flattening it’s essentials to touch on the elegant formal qualities that you might find in Japanese prints. There’s a touch of the naïve about it her work too, that might remind you of 19th Century American Folk Art. Tylee’s carefully toned, often low lit backgrounds create a quiet and antique space which illuminate the arrangements.
Tylee also uses reclaimed picture frames, and this probably heightens the suggestion that these pictures come from an older, more analogue world. An invitation to re-find meaning and solace in those simple arrangements of timeless beauty in a world that is seemingly becoming more unstable and difficult to comprehend.
Its that quiet reduction of elements and pared back design that doesn’t fuss over unnecessary detailing.