‘Etudes’ –Recent Work by
Louise Courtnell
13th - 21st February 2010

‘Etude”: a short musical composition or study

Tonal variations in paint can be compared with musical notes
on a piano where black is the equivalent to the bottom note
and white the top note. There is an analogy with music in my
work, in particular with still life.

I have to decide upon the musical “key” of each painting. In
‘Etudes’, I have chosen relatively light tones, ie. one could say
the ‘chord’ is made up of high notes. There is a general
limited range of tone and colour, which, to me evokes calm
and quiet humility. If we could ‘hear’ the paintings, the sound
would be a close harmony in the minor, rather than the major
key. A quiet, melancholy tune , rather than a loud cheerful
one (a modest Chopin Prelude and not a polka by Johann
Strauss, perhaps?!)

The centrepiece of the exhibition, ‘Basin, Jug and Eggs’, Is
the most ambitious, being a particularly minimal in colour and
tone , with minute differences between, for example the basin
and background. The lack of colour emphasizes the simplicity
of the objects and makes this the ‘quietest’ of the works. The
temperature of the whole is balanced by the warmth of the
eggs, in an otherwise cool arrangement.

This painting demanded an even greater intellectual and
detached concentration and is the culmination of a years
work on the whole project. (“Let every mark be a thought,
and every thought a clear one”, R. O Lenkiewicz.)’.

I have attempted to achieve a certain stillness and poetry in
these still lifes, and hope to have captured something of the
beauty and grace of everyday objects on white cloth.
Thank-you to Sarah and Dylan for inspiring me to create