Maddie Yuille: Peace to be found
Exhibition of recent large-scale paintings by Maddie Yuille, at Burley Fisher Books' exhibition space
Burley Fisher Books are pleased to present Peace to be found, a series of recent paintings by Maddie Yuille. Each large-scale painting depicts a different corner of North London, in particular Hackney, where the artist lives.
Yuille works from photographs, taken on walks around her neighbourhood, and seeks to record those elusive moments when the transformative golden light of the setting sun plays upon the buildings, forcing you to stop and stare. With each painting there was a particular point which drew her to the scene: the glow on the side of a building in Somerford Grove, the warm pool of light amidst the grey skies of Brooke Road, or the reflections in the windows on Evering Road. It was these fleeting moments that she wanted to capture.
Yuille’s compositions visualise those times where she felt a complete sense of peace while being in the city. She explains: “People often feel they have to leave London and get out into the countryside to find a sense of calm, but I think those moments are to be had in London too, just from walking around the streets. I often go for walks around Hackney, and these paintings are a way of expressing the feeling of peace that can be found from doing so.”
The artist’s use of colour explores how light can trigger a feeling or sense of place. Rather than working fastidiously from photographs, she focused instead on recreating the feeling she had when drawn to pause and take in fully her surroundings. Working with acrylics on paper, her paintings capture the memory of standing in a particular place in time.
Yuille is drawn to painting landscapes and street scenes, but instead of choosing those that are thought of as traditionally beautiful, she paints moments of unexpected beauty, where because of the time of day and the lighting at that moment, the mundane can become completely transformed.
Maddie Yuille (b.1988, London, UK) lives and works in London.
Burley Fisher Books is an independent bookshop and coffee shop in Haggerston, East London. Their new exhibitions and events space opened in February 2017 after a successful Kickstarter campaign to renovate their basement. This is their first exhibition in the new space.
Organised by Sam Fisher and Lucy Davis.