Gentle Storm
LARA BOWEN
oil on canvas framed in white wood
signed verso
45 x 60 cm plus frame
This painting forms part of an ongoing exploration of memory held in the language of flowers and vessels.
Although rooted in the idea of a floral still life, the image dissolves into movement and colour. Pastel tones drawn from sea light, desert air and winter sky sit alongside warmer notes reminiscent of souk textiles and soft leather slippers. The composition suggests a bouquet without describing one - a fleeting arrangement suspended in time.
These works are less about depiction and more about sensation: a place visited, a song playing, a moment felt fully and then gone. The vase becomes a container for experience; the flowers, a reminder of impermanence.
Painted in oil on canvas, many works begin with an underlayer of raw, hand-ground pigment that remains visible through looser brushwork. Colour is built through intuitive layering, often while listening to music and moving physically around the canvas.
The process embraces rhythm and gesture. Forms are allowed to shift and dissolve, leaving traces of what was there rather than fixed outlines.