“Fallen apple, winged seed, bits and pieces,” gouache on paper 5.5″ by 8″ 2009 private collection
“Apples, thorns, and empty box” gouache on paper 5.5″ by 8″ 2009 private collection (Artist Trust Auction)
“Thistles, figs and grapes, and matches,” gouache on paper 5.5″ by 8″ 2009 private collection
“Bruised apple, firewood, and sprouts,” gouache on paper 5.5″ by 8″ 2009
“Imperfect peach, rosemary, and stones,” gouache on paper 5.5″ by 8″ 2009 private collection
“Ripe persimmon, shadows” gouache on paper 5.5″ by 8″ 2009 available at Fine Impressions Gallery
Number Our Days
Six new still life paintings
We are all dying, quickly. Even living to a “ripe old age” is very brief in light of history. In this series of small still life paintings of fading fruit and found objects I contemplate dying and living, human mortality and God’s eternal nature, and the amazing meeting of humanity and Divinity, death and life in Jesus Christ.
Inspired by a Medieval book called “the Art of Dying” these paintings are meditations, parables, songs, and visual mnemonics. The fruit in each piece represents people, sitting in the middle of the arches where a saint or portrait would be in an early Northern Renaissance panel. Above and below are other objects to represent trials, temptations, Divine realities, and spiritual consequences in the tradition of those altar pieces and later Vanitas paintings.
These works are painted from life, in gouache on paper, with only the available natural Northern light. They document the change in seasons from June to January, six months, from summer to winter, the dying time. The number six represents humanity, and one week – resting on the seventh day.
— Natalie St.Martin