Fred Levine is delighted to announce its first solo exhibition in its new gallery Hope is the Thing With Colours, a solo exhibition by British artist Rebecca Partridge, opening July 5, in Bruton. The exhibition presents a new body of work ranging from large watercolours on raw canvas to tiny oil paintings on panel, though made in different ways this is the artists attempt to convey an experiential relationship to our natural environment, from the artist’s prolonged periods of observation whether that be of desert skies, wildflowers at night, or tree canopies in the bright light of midday.
Taking its title from a reimagining of Emily Dickinson’s iconic line, “Hope” is the thing with feathers, Partridge’s new series investigates colour as a vessel for emotional resonance and quiet optimism. Through luminous surfaces and refined gradations of tone, her paintings offer immersive visual experiences that draw viewers into meditative spaces—spaces where light, memory, and nature intersect.
Both the wildflowers and tree canopies are made with the help of extensive colour notes which the artist makes in the landscape. Although they use a photographic reference to translate the structure of these moments of attention, photographs are never able to convey colours as they are directly experienced, something which through the process of multiple layering becomes more closely experienced through painting. In the Sky Paintings, made up of dozens of very thin washes of watercolour, the colour begins to hum, oscillating between something abstract and very real in the world. These paintings, unlike the smaller works, are made from memory which allows for an embodied and intuitive process of making.
Partridge has often referred in the past to her own experience of Synaesthesia; which for her includes heightened colour perceptions. This is perhaps revealed when we look at the works collectively: patterns begin to emerge and the individual paintings can then be seen as a series of moments which point to something much larger. Their relational nature reveals abstractions not only in colour and light, but to time and the cyclical rhythms of the natural world. These paintings ask us to stop and take a moment, to be silent and give attention, they are moments of both vitality and respite for us, and reminders of the importance of attention to our natural environment.
