This Still Life was completed in 1997. Although she didn’t sign it, Jenny gave it a title: Still Life (Curve). I didn’t understand the title until I started to catalogue the oils and then I could see that in most of them the objects are arranged in geometric figures.
Jenny had loved the 1995 National Gallery exhibition ‘Spanish Still Life: Velasquez to Goya’. There is a definite nod to the Spanish tradition in the hard outlines and vibrant colours, particularly of the vase. Her previous oil Still Life paintings have a pastel palette and objects are were less emphatic.
I didn’t see the Spanish influence until my husband had framed it.
Then I could also see that two other still life paintings have a marked Spanish influence: what a difference a frame can make.
