Working with oil paints, Steph scrubs and soaks the rich pigment into fine, transparent cotton, allowing light to pass through and creating paintings with a ghostly presence.
“Under sickly clouds, in an endless field, near the end of their bloom. Two flowers planted together try to twist away from each other, resisting the breeze. One opens to a shower of sun while the other curls to shade itself. They are tired of one another after a long spring.”
Jhana Millers is pleased to present new work by Steph Arrowsmith in the gallery foyer.
Steph is a Fine Arts graduate from Toi Rauwhārangi, Massey University College of Creative Arts and lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington.
Steph is drawn to technicolour musicals, pictures in old children books, prayer cards and stories of holy apparitions, as well as old holiday snaps. Fabricated sets glittering with studio lighting. Beams of coloured sun falling from puffy clouds. Saints radiating light in the sky. Her sister jumping into a turquoise swimming pool. This imagery offers an idyllic idea of the world that is comforting and nostalgic, while also eerie and suggestive of something hiding out of the frame — tears leaking through idyllic visions.