Artist Statement
Intervals is a series of paintings inspired by everyday spaces that are often overlooked—corners, windows, stairwells, reflections, and fragments of architecture. These are places we usually move through without much thought, yet they hold subtle shifts of light, atmosphere, and perspective.
Threshold (Window Sash in Green), Oil on panel, 800 x 800 × 42 mm, 2025
Working from observation as well as memory, I use painting to transform these familiar spaces into images that sit between the recognisable and the imagined. Light plays a central role, bringing certain surfaces into focus while allowing others to remain partially hidden. Reflections, shadows, and changing viewpoints create moments of uncertainty, inviting closer attention.
My practice begins with looking. I am interested in what happens when we spend time with something ordinary and allow ourselves to see it beyond its practical function.
Architecture provides a starting point, but these paintings are not about buildings themselves. Instead, they explore how we experience space, how memory shapes what we see, and how meaning can emerge through sustained observation. Through the process of painting, familiar environments become places of reflection, where details that might normally go unnoticed gain significance.
The title Intervals refers to the spaces between things: between light and shadow, inside and outside, presence and absence, certainty and ambiguity. These in-between moments form the foundation of the work.
Threshold (ceiling vent and beams), Oil on panel 600 x 600 x 42, 2025
In a culture shaped by speed and constant distraction, Intervals offers an opportunity to slow down and look more closely. The paintings suggest that value is often found not in obvious subjects or clear conclusions, but in moments of transition, attention, and discovery.
By focusing on spaces that are usually overlooked, the work invites viewers to reconsider their own surroundings and the act of looking itself. It proposes that meaning is not always fixed or immediate, but can be found in what unfolds gradually—in the spaces between what is revealed and what remains unseen. -Ruth Phipps 2026
Exhibition Wednesday 15th - Saturday 31st July
