Night Journal (Blue Head with Apples), oil on linen on canvas 715 x 920 mm, 2020 — All rights reserved. by Graham Fletcher

Night Journal

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Graham Fletcher's recent works zoom in on the tabletop.

Nearly 20 years ago artist Graham Fletcher produced the Virgin series of highly decorative paintings in response to Gauguin's Pacific artworks. The incorporation of some of those paintings of Graham's in the 2019 BBC documentary "Gauguin: A Dangerous Life" brought that earlier work back to Graham's attention and prompted him to revisit it from his current perspective.

Now a Principal Lecturer at the Dunedin School of Art, Graham has produced his Night Journal series of ten new works. While continuing to investigate material cultures and intercultural spaces, in these still life paintings Graham pays closer attention to fewer objects. He displays tribal objects and artefacts with fruit and against backgrounds of lush Pacific vegetation and flowers portrayed in wallpapers and fabrics.

These works are small compared to his paintings of interiors; Graham hopes that the size will tempt viewers to close in on the painting and gain more of a sense of his application of the paint. He continues to explore the potential in the still life genre this time around.