BOOK SIGNING with Tuesday Riddell: Saturday 3 May, 11am RSVP
PRE-ORDER BOOK HERE
Tuesday Riddell is an artist whose art is, in many ways, born out of an intuitive understanding of material. Having studied at the City and Guilds Art School and receiving a Fellowship in historic decorative surfaces, Riddell has her roots in the techniques of Japanning. This centuries-old and endangered art form – a Western interpretation of an historic Asian technique – can afford enormous depth, luminosity and warmth. Riddell’s practice primarily involves the application of multiple layers of lacquer, paint, gold and silver leaf, shell and mother of pearl onto wooden grounds, creating rich, highly polished surfaces that appear to glow from within. Each resulting piece is an object of great beauty, representing many hours of meticulous labour.
However, it is not solely in the revival of ancient crafts that Riddell’s interest is active although her research and practice has kept alive a growing list of rare and dying knowledge. The techniques themselves make her work singular and steal the heart and eye, but they are vassal to her artistic language. Here it is to nature that Riddell looks for inspiration and for purpose in seeking to understand and describe her role as both observer and participant in our delicate ecology.
Through the Brambles showcases an exceptional series of her dedicated and highly detailed paintings. They take inspiration from these observations of the natural world gilding them with the craft of storytelling. While her imagery often appears enchanting at first glance, a closer look reveals an undercurrent of mystery and darkness, much like Victorian fairy paintings of 19th-century artists. Insects, tangled foliage, and shimmering scenes emerge from the dark lacquered backgrounds. The undergrowth drawing the viewer into an otherworldly realm where beauty and danger coexist, and folklore prevails. It was through a circle of brambles that druids once passed those who were ill or infirm believing the sinuous twine to have restorative properties and it was past the brambles -that impenetrable thicket – where the faery kingdom was believed to reside. It is perhaps not surprising that it is also to figures like Beatrix Potter, that most clear voice of early environmentalism, to whom Tuesday connects as a storyteller of the profound through her chosen medium, and to the darker magical realism bound up in the writings of Angela Carter.
With this new body of work, Riddell continues her exploration of nature’s delicate yet ruthless balance, using her masterful technique to capture both its fragility and its resilience. Through the Brambles invites audiences to peer into a world that feels at once dreamlike and unsettling, where light flickers against shadow, and the familiar transforms into something fantastical. Each work is an incredible story, a treasure trove of the imagination, filled with anthropomorphic creatures which transport us to a magical world, leading us deep into the darkness of the woods. By reviving and reinterpreting an age-old craft not only of techniques but the power of visual symbolisms, Riddell not only preserves its tradition but also pushes its expressive possibilities into new and mesmerising territory.
