Reina Reilly
North Sydney Girls High School
SMALL TENDERNESS
Painting
Oil on canvas
I have grown up in a family of three generations of women, experiencing the giving and receiving of care that transcends boundaries of age and culture. Often, this care is seen in small, mundane gestures of tenderness. Small Tenderness pays tribute to one small and mundane act: the washing of another’s face. My body of work uses the motion of washing to explore the intimate relationships that my mother, my grandmother and I have developed. Soft colours and loose brushwork represent the delicacy of skin, and layers of oil paint express the passage of time across three generations of women.
Marker's Commentary
Small Tenderness depicts three generations of women skilfully portrayed in expressive oil paint on canvas. The artist confidently explores the expressive textural qualities of paint in the creation of an emotionally engaging series of portraits. The delicate and evocative colour combinations and blending of skin tones in each portrait reveals an intimate moment of interaction between the women. This imbues the series with a sense of cyclical movement and suggests familial ties and intergenerational connection echoed in the subjects posed with closed eyes, repeated across the three panels. The paintings offer up a beautiful reflective celebration of the small, quiet moments of love and care shared between three generations of women.