Miranda Boulton

Miranda Boulton is a contemporary British painter who lives and works in Cambridge, UK. She studied Art History at Sheffield Hallam University and at Turps Banana Art School in London. In 2021 she won the Jacksons Painting Prize. Notable exhibitions include: Notable exhibitions include: Double Time (two-person exhibition) at Arthouse1, 2019, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2016 & 2019, Creekside Open 2019, ING Discerning Eye 2021 and the Young Masters Autumn Exhibition 2022.

 

Miranda states: "My paintings are about the passing of time, they are Memento Mori, reminding us of our mortality and the transience of life. I paint flowers, alive, beautiful, decaying, dying, haunting, life affirming, poignant, reassuring. Always at the height of their beauty they fade away. They cover the monumental and the everyday. My grandfather was an artist, he died before I was born, my grandmother kept his studio the same as the day he died. As a child I use to sneak into his mysterious studio and imagine talking with him about his work. These conversations made me want to paint, to recapture something of him and make it present again. For me painting is an ongoing conversation between the past and the present. I am fascinated by Flower Paintings from Art History, having spent a great deal of time looking at paintings by Morandi, Winifred Nicholson, Manet, Rachel Ruysch and Mary Moser to name a few. I absorb their work and follow their brushstrokes as if listening in on a conversation. Memories of their paintings are used as the starting point for my process. I am searching for a space where I have touched on the feel and presence of a painting from the past. There is an essence of the original, an acknowledgement of a time, place and history all in the mix. Colours slide and slip around the surface, large sweeping gestures made by hand or brush sit next to layers of impasto paint and carefully painted details. Areas of soft powdery spray paint collide with hard built-up oil paint. The canvas is turned to destabilise and shift the composition, giving fresh perspective to the process. My practise is an ongoing conversation with the past, I explore new forms from old imagery and narratives, linked through expressive layers of colour, gesture and form."

 

Boulton describes her paintings are Nature Morte of flora. Her work is a response to historical references within this genre. Art historical images are translated through memory into a contemporary pictorial language, linked through expressive colour, gesture and form. Her interest in the passing of time is central to Boulton’s work. Flowers remind us of the fleeting, transient nature of life. She thinks of painting as a time-based medium, layers of paint are like timelines on a tree, each holding memories of brush marks and integral to the finished piece. Each painting is an ongoing conversation between past and present, an exploration of new forms from old imagery and narratives.