City I

Johanna Melvin’s paintings are built through a finely layered process of decision-making about colour relationship, spatial composition and consistency of paint, negotiating a finely-spun balance between the incidental and intentional.

A starting point or inspiration for this process might be found in architectural details, a window, an open door or a shadow cast along a wall. Other kinds of fleeting visual sensation informing the work and its preoccupation with the painterly, might be the incidental brush-marks found on a whitewashed window, the roof tops of a city-scape or found colour relationships in the urban environment that excite the eye.

For her exhibition here at The House of St Barnabas Jo has created several site-specific works, painted in response to the architectural history of the House and referencing the 18th Century Rococo plasterwork to be found in our historic rooms. The idea of a plasterwork Rococo ‘flourish’ becomes a metaphor, or a motif, symbolic of The House of St Barnabas’ mission to provide people with the support they need to find lasting paid employment—and to thrive and flourish on their own terms.