Yesterday I went to see Janet, an exhibition of paintings by Caroline Walker. This was my first Edinburgh gallery visit since March, and it felt great to be back.
Caroline Walker, (born Dunfermline, Scotland), has created a series of works focusing on her mother, Janet, based entirely in her home. They document her mother moving from room to room, like the evidence of a childhood game. Caroline seemingly goes unnoticed, she spies on her mother, following her as she carries out chores: cleaning, gardening, cooking, dusting. We too, the viewers, spy, follow and peer in unnoticed, and it’s almost surprising when on one canvas, Janet looks straight back at us.
These domestic activities are elevated, not dismissed, by the artist. The images are snapshots which combine immediacy of photography with the grandiose detachment of oil paintings. These daily moments are purposeful, meaningful, considered, deliberate.
Yet they are also intimate. They capture the feeling of when you’re walking past houses in the winter when it’s dark outside, when you’re thrilled and somehow comforted by the warm glow within, even though you’re outside of that warmth. That feeling is especially captured by the jewel-like light in Making Fishcakes, Late Afternoon, December (2019), and Tucking In, Late Evening, March (2020). I loved looking in, indulging my curiosity. You can tell a lot about someone by what they surround themselves with. Janet likes animals. Janet seemingly also collects egg flips.
At Ingleby Gallery, the main exhibition space is on the ground floor, but upstairs in the Feast Room there are works by other artists the gallery represents. It’s like a special extra helping of art you didn’t know you were going to get, and was here where I found my favourite work by Walker, Hemming Pyjamas, Late Morning, December (2020). The darker palette of the room around the painting, the fact that the room itself is more domestic (with sofas and a dining table, albeit very grand), the placement of seeing it from afar as you come up the stairs makes it so utterly convincing and beautiful. Even though Walker paints on linen, which gives an overall matte effect, the warm light shines from the room, reflecting off the chest of drawers, beckoning you in.
This is a wonderful show about light, home, warmth, the intimacy of people doing normal things. It’s what we want our homes to be, there’s a serenity about these paintings, a peace I’d like to carry with me into the next few months of winter at home.
Janet by Caroline Walker is on at Ingleby Gallery until 19th December, they are open Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm. The exhibition is free but you need to book a timed slot via the website.
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Good morning Genevieve,
What a lovely review, of what looks like charming paintings. It made me think of the Dutch Masters and their love of opening the shutters for us, through which we glimpse into the everyday of a bygone era. I would be interested to know what size they were. The review, which is beautifully written makes me want to see them for myself
To be frightfully pedantic, Hemming Pyjamas says December (2020) which I don’t think has happened yet! Although it could mean hemming pyjamas is a December chore, and she painted it sometime in 2020😆.
Well done again , nice work!
Your Mum xx
Sent from my iPhone
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Thank you! So pleased you enjoyed it. I hadn’t made the connection to Dutch Masters but it makes a lot of sense. Most of the pictures by Walker were surprisingly large, more than 2 metres across (except for the trio of paintings shown here which were each about 40cm x 50cm). I’ll make sure to include the dimensions on the captions in future.
I’ve updated the caption for Hemming Pyjamas now, so the title is ‘Hemming Pyjamas, Late Morning, December’, and it was painted in 2020.
xxx
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