THE STILL BEFORE THE LIFE
By Laura Kiddie

British Painter and 3rd Year Edinburgh University student Laura Kiddie’s exhibition The Still Before the Life can be enjoyed as an early love letter to oneself; a celebration of the artist’s potential coming together in something artistically and personally beautiful. Colourfully textured scenes emblematic of a creative who has pursued their passion and found their place.

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Kiddie’s fast-developing practice centres around Still Life and Interiors. The ‘objectification’ of subject an ode to one stepping from a life of outsider observation to insider immersion. ­In this exhibition we taste the broad experimentation and interpretation off Kiddie’s new ways of seeing and doing, turning away from the sadness of a hard past to a joyful future, material process and vibrant colour exploring the form and perspective of flowers, pots, vases & side tables. Applying, removing and discovering old layers of painting and previous forms and ideas, akin to an archaeological process of discovery, Kiddie’s subjective world forging with the observed, objective outer world. 

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This technical development, showcased mostly through small-scale studies, marks Kiddie’s moves towards a larger scale, so seen in the centrepiece empoweringly entitled Homecoming, where we will start to see Kiddie layer more narrative into her painting, interweaving art history and personal storytelling through the surfaces found within her Still Life & Interiors.

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The Still Before the Life is the first public step in a brighter life of hope and self-understanding. Still Lifes the visual confluence of this personal history and journey, merging with a passive turned active lifelong love of art and art history.