In viewers’ own words
“I lived in Loughborough Junction for a few years and spent many, many evenings winding in circles around these streets. When I look at your art, it is a truer depiction of my memories than my memories themselves. These paintings capture the very essence of these South London streets, the structures that greet us day by day even when all else has changed. The deceptively empty street scenes demand that we pause and spend a while to look more closely, reminding us that even as successive generations of residents arrive and pass by, ourselves included, these buildings and roads and skies will remain - a reflection in a window, the soft exhale of dawn on the horizon, the muted magnificence of a hundred shades of brick, that certain pattern of sunlight, slicing shapes across a wall and bursting the world into flame.”
Lucy Porter, October 23
————————————————————————-
“Your paintings are snapshots in time, street pauses, a glimpse of the inbetween. The colours sing to me, the detail of a brick, the shadow on a shutter, pale colours dancing together to make the urban landscape thrill with beauty.”
Claire Selby, October 23
————————————————————————-
“Most of my childhood was spent in urban areas similar to what you paint. They were different though. They were chaotic and messy and unpredictable. I would spend my childhood and adolescence socialising "on the street".
Our parents sent us out to play in these areas and when we came of age we sent ourselves out to experience life in these environments. Once in a while, whilst my friends were playing football or lighting a stolen firework or having their first kiss behind a building, I would stop and stare. I would see the beauty of a brick wall or an empty car park that that was sparse of human interaction, that had sharp lines and beautiful angles. For a second I was looking at something I loved but didn't understand. Today when I feel that again, it's nostalgia and content mixed with the spark of an experience vou don't full understand but wholeheartedly welcome.
Your paintings make me feel peace.”
Craig Walton, October 23
————————————————————————-
“We all live in the everyday, surrounded by a world most of us don't pause and take time to look at in detail. The context of our lives is taken for granted, invisible... we notice change but take for granted the consistent fabric around us… the streets we walk, the bridges, the infrastructure, the view from our window.
Marie's paintings remind me of my life in London as a student, celebrating and elevating those everyday moments in time and space to provoke memories.
Sometimes I think we all need to see the detail, and the colour of the mundane everyday structure around us, to have our eyes opened to the beauty of everyday life, to make us smile, stimulate memories and remind us we have a place in this world. Beauty in the mind of the beholder.”
Andrew Drummond, October 23
————————————————————————-
“I discovered you in lockdown where I was mesmerised firstly by your painting titled "That Day”. I gazed repeatedly at its cut glass lucidity. The application of beautiful rainbows of colour, and shards of light faceting the geometric beams of the bridge into kaleidoscopic shafts of sunlight and shade, felt as if you had crystallised urban geometry into the geology of a gem with the flex of your eye's lens.
I was hooked.
The alchemy of your work for me is that you reveal an essential beauty, by stripping back the layers beneath the noise and distracting detritus of the everyday, to let light and warmth radiate out and so, suspend time. In doing this you elevate the reality of an urban scene, beyond a familiar location imbued with personal memory, to an urban landscape of the mind and imagination. Here, you create breathing space as you place action elsewhere.
In that stillness I am free to both wander down memory lane, and to be still for long enough to be warmed by the latent heat of a brick or rendered wall baked by the afternoon sun. As you entice my mind's eye to something just out of sight or around a corner, it feels like a personal invite by you to me the viewer to follow you alone on foot through sunlight and shade to an event beyond my horizon and step beyond memory and into the future.
In these ways you subvert my notion of what an urban landscape should be and hold a warm and human conversation about these spaces as you draw me through them with a new lens. For example your painting of brickwork goes beyond meticulous observation and execution into animating bricks into life. In the painting "Under the Bridge' the dynamic relationship between the bricks to each other is orchestral. They dance with colour and seem as if they would ring with an individual note. I imagine them playing as buttons on a vast keyboard of music and light.”
Catherine Beard, October 23
————————————————————————-
“I experience my surroundings fleetingly ushering tiny footsteps to everyday places, it can feel overwhelmingly monotonous. When I come across your paintings, scrolling whilst feeding my baby, I see London's landscape through your meticulously paired back, beautifully edited lens, and the next morning I'm reminded to slow down, lift my gaze, and discover the beauty in the everyday.”
Francesca, October 23
————————————————————————-
“Your work is terrific, Marie, familiar from Twitter and even more powerful in the flesh. I often like smallish artworks – for the intimacy – yet the larger scale suits your subjects, for instance the long sweep of railway arch and wide expanse of pale sky in ‘Places I’ve Been’. Another favourite is ‘Coming Home’: taut linear tension of girders, kerbs and wires; intense shades of orange and green.
I think you are very clever in transforming humdrum corners of south London (I live in Lewisham) into startling art”.
Nicholas S, Nov 21
————————————————————————-
“It’s been lovely to see you paint these trees from the little window at your father’s place year after year and how the “same” view yields different takes every time. It’s also interesting to see in some of your recent urban pieces that you have included trees, bringing together two of the subjects you have been studying”
James W, Sept 21
————————————————————————-
“For us urban dwellers, trees our are best connection to nature. We watch them grow, support other life, and they ground us in the seasons. What I love about your paintings is how they capture a perfect moment, a place and a time, and yet somehow seem to capture the essence of all seasons and therefore can remind us of our own special moments with nature”
Michael J, Sept 21
————————————————————————-
“I'm a local - I love how you've made what some may think mundane or unloved look extraordinary.”
Wen W, June 21
————————————————————————-
“I think it's a magical thing that you do. The beauty and elegance of urban settings is often overlooked or underappreciated by many. And you capture it beautifully. It must be a wonderful feeling to be able to add to this constantly evolving tapestry of London life and to be a part of that narrative.”
@paintingsoflondon, May 21
————————————————————————-
“When I first saw your urban landscapes I had to do a lot of introspection about why I connected with them so deeply. I realized growing up in Los Angeles I spent a lot of time in the backseat of my parents car looking out the window a concrete structures and even as a young child I would notice the angles in the light. They were wonders to me. I would think about how they were supported and how they managed to build them. I went on to study physics intrigued by math and forces and finally took a surprising turn to medical school. Anyway your paintings have captured a childhood vision for me that I enjoy revisiting.”
Lisa D, April 21
————————————————————————-
“I find your work extremely attractive. Your paintings, to me, feel like books. They distill a very strong sense of story telling. Something has happened or is about to happen and you just managed to capture that exact moment. There is an element of mystery, uncertainty. Every time you look at them you see a different part of the story. They are captivating...”
Manuel V, February 21
————————————————————————-
“A pleasure to meet you, in person your integrity is as present as it is in your art. Highly recommend a visit, but be warned you won't be able to leave empty handed”.
Teri P, January 21
————————————————————————-
“A delicate geometry mixed with a colour palette that reflects atmosphere, emotion, mood and soul”.
Ian C, November 20
————————————————————————-
“These are urban landscape paintings of commonplace scenes viewed through a personal lens. The cityscapes and interiors will be familiar to any Londoner, but they also hint at personal experience: façades as they may be seen through a kitchen window, an institutional corridor observed while waiting for an appointment.
————————————————————————-
At their best, the paintings work like long exposure photographs, intensifying colors and removing traces of people and activity, allowing both artist and observer to contemplate the interplay of color, light and form in the physical environments we inhabit”.
Carsten S, 2018
————————————————————————-
“I think your depiction of light is a vital part of your practice. Across all of your paintings, be they interior or exterior, urban or rural, light seems to shine across and out of the canvases.”
————————————————————————-
“There is a calmness (which could be seen as sinister) a sort of feeling of anticipation, especially in the ones of bridges and stairways... is there someone around the corner sort of feeling, also I agree you capture light really well in all your paintings.”
————————————————————————-
“Hammershoi and Hockney got together to capture the stillness of Architecture”
————————————————————————-
“The absence of figures evokes complex feelings - as if we are aware of something that has just happened, or is just about to happen.”