Sheffer Gallery - Louisa Chircop

It wasn’t until the last day of Louisa Chircop’s show that I could actually make time to go and see it and the first time that I had been up close to her work as I only really saw snippets of it via facebook.

‘Trigger’, oil on canvas is a beauty, it has a dream like figure that looks like it’s falling, it’s luscious in colour and beautifully balanced with light and dark greens, lovely greens. This one is my favourite. ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ both oil on canvas are two deeply affected works in relation to her own parents and her ability as a parent herself. I love how in ‘Mother’ the figure is tethered to a wall, haphazardly climbing through life and ‘Father’ with it’s figure bent over constantly collecting memories.

‘Bell’, oil on canvas and another favourite of mine is a joyful work that shows two headless figures dancing, are they dancing to the tune of their own beat or just dancing to celebrate their own life together. It’s an expressive piece and a lengthy read. ‘The Family’, oil on canvas shows us a small family of 3 on one fast moving bike, the mother and child balanced precariously on the back and the father keeping the bike speedily upright, is that ‘Rissole’ the family dog appearing out of nowhere in the background, could be. Louisa paints the affects of speed well, representing it in all it’s blurry.

Another headless figure appears in ‘When you think you are taller than the trees’, oil on canvas is yet another favourite, I love how the figure is standing on a chair and then your eyes dart to the trees and then you think about it and we all do at some time think we are all taller than trees. Love it!

And finally ‘Shades of a Woman’, six works all oil on canvas showing us images of faces from history including the Mona Lisa with their eyes revealing their true inner beauty and the windows to their worlds.

All of these paintings are dark in there nature, dark as finding reason within a dream or about a dream, discovering the truth behind reality, giving us an insight in the mind of Louisa Chircop, revealing a little more telling us what’s happened, explaining the struggle of falling ill, having children, dealing with depression and life it’self.

Fleur MacDonald

15th February - 25th February 2012
sheffergallery.com