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D<br />
R E U B E N C O L L E Y | N E W P A I N T I N G S
In much of his recent work, <strong>Reuben</strong><br />
<strong>Colley</strong> has been exploring the<br />
blurred boundaries between the<br />
natural and urban worlds. In this<br />
collection nature breaks through<br />
everywhere. Trees flourish between<br />
the tower blocks and blossom in<br />
profusion among the box-like<br />
maisonettes. Communal rotary<br />
clothes lines sprout from the lawn,<br />
defiantly competing with an<br />
ornamental cherry tree. <strong>Colley</strong> gives<br />
us modern nature.<br />
<strong>Reuben</strong> <strong>Colley</strong> is working at the<br />
height of his powers in representing<br />
these neglected spaces. As a painter<br />
of landscape, and urban landscape in<br />
particular, he takes his place within a<br />
long art historical tradition. There is<br />
a hint of Gainsborough about the<br />
softness of the trees in these<br />
<strong>paintings</strong>, which contrasts<br />
powerfully with the strong geometry<br />
of many of the compositions.<br />
Mondrian, famous for his grid<br />
patterns, began by painting trees,<br />
finding abstract patterns in their<br />
branches. <strong>Colley</strong> finds rich material<br />
in the ready-made grids of fences,<br />
barriers, garage doors and tower<br />
block windows.<br />
Colour can be in short supply on a<br />
housing estate on a grey, rainy day,<br />
but <strong>Colley</strong> finds it in unexpected<br />
places and uses it to provide exciting<br />
little accents, just as Turner might<br />
have done. We find vibrant yellow<br />
in a traffic bollard, blue in the garage<br />
doors, and of course pink, not just in<br />
the glorious cherry trees but also in<br />
the graffiti tags.<br />
These are <strong>paintings</strong> that offer us<br />
something <strong>new</strong> each time we view<br />
them. They also invite us to take a<br />
fresh look at our own environment,<br />
and to embrace every neglected<br />
corner of it.<br />
Henrietta Lockhart
Blossom 1 | Oil on canvas | 122 x 99 cm<br />
£18,000
Blossom 2 | Oil on canvas | 122 x 99 cm<br />
£18,000
Blossom 3 | Oil on canvas | 76 x 61 cm<br />
£9,600
Blossom 4 | Oil on canvas | 76 x 61 cm<br />
£9,600
Bradford Street | Oil on canvas | 152 x 122 cm<br />
£24,000
Car Park | Oil on canvas | 76 x 61 cm<br />
£9,600
Estate | Oil on canvas | 122 x 99 cm<br />
£18,000
Tower Block | Oil on canvas | 122 x 99 cm<br />
£18,000
Underpass | Oil on canvas | 102 x 81 cm<br />
£15,000
Nova Court | Oil on canvas | 122 x 99 cm<br />
£18,000
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