‘harvest’for MARTA Contemporary

This collection of oil paintings grows from small, shared moments spent amongst trees, moving through the countryside and hand-picking olives. Intimate, personal, and fleeting, you may not long for them, but I do.

Fuelled by the repetitive rhythm of menial work, these scenes reflect a collective tiredness and a quiet intimacy. I think of slipping back into a warm bed, winding down a sun-drenched road, watching a golden leaf fall, or picking up a story where you left off.

Conversations and shared proximity link these memories. It's dizzying to watch the road ahead while sharing the cabin of a glarey car, trees whipping past the passenger window, sun bleeding through blanketing branches. Watching cold hands collect small fruit, the shared work grounds you to dry earth. In motion, we might reveal more from within. Guard down, face turned away. In these moments, we are closer than before.

To harvest is to gather. That notion runs through these works, both in the fleeting moments depicted, and in the gestural, accumulative action of paint applied.