Light As A Feather 2019

Zoe Hawk's painting, "Light As A Feather" feels like a still from a movie I want to see. The crispness of the acrylic on canvas gives everything a slightly surreal edge, like a memory playing out in hyper-real colour. I’m drawn to the flat planes of colour, especially the turquoise wall, it feels like a stage set. The shadows are painted with such care, grounding the floating figures in a tangible space. Look at the way the light catches the girls’ white socks – they're almost glowing! It's a detail that makes the whole scene vibrate with possibility. Hawk's world reminds me of early work by Ellen Altfest, where realism is pushed just far enough to become something dreamlike and unsettling. It's this embrace of ambiguity that makes art so endlessly fascinating, isn't it?