EXHIBITIONS
Find out more about painter and illustrator Lisa MacDonald's latest shows and where to see her work next...
On Now: DREAM WALKS
Lisa MacDonald's new collection of paintings is now being exhibited at her pop-up shop and studio in Jersey's Central Market.
'Dream Walks' is a collection of landscapes which often depict figures journeying through them.
Sometimes their journey is bathed in sunlight and accompanied by local wildlife, other moments are lonely, treacherous and bleak. But despite the changing moods and seasons MacDonald’s figures are full of fear and hope as they head towards the unknown, grounding themselves in the beauty of the natural environment that surrounds and envelopes them.
As though the viewer is also journeying through MacDonald’s landscapes, the artist invites us to notice moments and interactions in the small, safe worlds she builds up, brushstroke by brushstroke.
Brought to life by the artist’s keen sense of colour, and the layering of abstract and representative renderings, this collection is as captivating as it is poignant. Slow progress, stopping to smell the flowers and taking silent moments to build one’s strength combine into this collection’s love language as each figure treads on, determined.
Visit the exhibition...
Me & MollyMac (opposite Appleblossoms Florist)
Central Market,
9-13 Halkett Place
St. Helier, Jersey,
JE2 4WT
Monday - Saturday: 9am - 5pm
*(with late night shopping until 7pm on Thursdays)
Sunday: 10am - 3pm (throughout December)
Previous shows...
HEART IN A JAR
16 - 30 October 2020 at Grève de Lecq Barracks
kindly supported by ArtHouse Jersey
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Kaleidoscopic in its emotional range, Lisa's solo show ‘Heart in a Jar’ was an architectural exploration of the inner and outer self. Each painting examined interior and exterior spaces which are contained and re-contained before bursting open, unleashing an outpour of what might be love or grief, anxiety or pain.
Some celebratory, others more sinister, each canvas constructed and demarcated its very own world. The glass bottles and vases which became a motif running through the collection could well be windows to the soul, or display cases, freezing a more macabre scene in time, suspending it in negative space. It’s this duality which make MacDonald’s work so rich and yet so bittersweet. With every chirruping bird, there’s a ghostly figure seemingly trapped behind the glass which haunts the scene – have they been imprisoned there against their will or does it just feel safer to keep the outside world out?
Begun in 2018, the work felt prescient in an era where lockdowns and shielding have entered our common parlance, but MacDonald’s own experiences of chaos and chronic pain illuminated how these dimensions of control and mayhem have been a reality faced by many long before the pandemic hit.
Resonating more keenly and poignantly with the public in light of the covid-19 outbreak, it's fitting that this work was exhibited in 2020 – a year of painful recalibration and change, a year where time has both stood still and rushed forward, which has been observed by all of us, our faces pressed up against the glass, waiting with baited breath.
The artist is exceedingly grateful to ArtHouse Jersey who provided the seed funding and exhibition space to make this show possible.
