Though some cityscapes seem to be an excuse for a delighted observation and arrangement of cool geometric shapes and subtle juxtapositions of whites and greys - essentially, for all their realism, abstract compositions - the human presence is paramount in these pictures. There are portraits, but portraits that suggest a particular moment of emotional crisis in the sitter's life. They are narrative paintings, but the narrative must be supplied by the spectator. Sometimes the human presence is suggested rather than actual: a child's dress on a stand; a pair of shoes placed neatly on a folded skirt - the effect faintly sinister. We can see them as a pleasing arrangement of colour and form or invent a story to account for them.
Her work is full of paradoxes; cooly modern, almost minimalist at times, it has echoes of Greuze and a pre-Raphaelite precision and sentiment. Clarity is used to create mystery; starkness goes with an oriental richness; orderlinesss, extreme control, is accompanied by a desire to express the disorder of emotion and for a suggestiveness that deliberately takes the images out of the artist's hands.
Such contrasts give these pictures considerable dramatic tension - but they would be pictures one could live with, satisfying both as decorative objects, lucid, glowing arrangements of colours and shapes, and at a deeper, more tantalizing level.
Jane Rye