From a young age Celia Paul has chronicled her life through her art. The people, landmarks and landscapes so intimately and deeply connected to Paul and her daily life between the years 2011 and 2024 are captured within the fifty-five exhibited works on paper. These were composed often in a bid to record occasions deemed worthy of recollection or when an event readjusted the artist’s perspective. As she herself noted, ‘in this respect, they resemble diaries’.
Like a diary entry, many of the works are dated, with these annotations being integral to the final image. The dates give a rare clue to a moment of specific significance - the third anniversary of her husband Steven Kupfer’s death; a saint’s day, such as 14th February; or the artist’s birthday. In other works, the dates are withheld. Within these unmarked landscapes, portraits and still lifes, the impetus remains veiled which only enriches their contemplative and intimate nature.
The final work in the show, dated 11 November 2024, gained greater significance to Paul after it was completed. A watercolour of Paul’s four sisters – Mandy, Lucy, Jane and Kate – it marked the artist’s birthday. That same day the artist Frank Auerbach died; a dear friend of Paul’s, whom she named her son after. The watercolour subsequently took on a profound new poignancy.
The power of these works on paper is indebted to the mystery of the visual language which, in contrast to the written word, withholds explicit communication with the viewer. This enigmatic quality leaves the diary entry only partly narrated with the image acting like an echo of the moment recalled by the artist.
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