Audrey McMillan

In these paintings Audrey is exploring the qualities of natural light, distortions and reflections of artificial light on skin and in interior environments to create dramatic and atmospheric paintings.

She has created complex figure compositions in these almost internal spaces. The reflection and shadow on the form continue distorting our understanding of the space, creating an eerie unfamiliar feeling of the common encounter. The relationship between the form and the viewer is unclear. The figure is indirectly challenging, highlighted by the poses and closeness of the subjects in pictorial space but yet the relationship with the viewer is intimate. It is this deliberate absence of further narrative that leaves us questioning ourselves as onlookers.

The relationship of subject and viewer is contradictory to the western traditional portrayal of a woman in her 'boudoir' being accepting and willing, however in the development of this series Audrey has been strongly influenced by the old masters of the Dutch and Flemish schools.