J.M.Wray

I started this project in March of 2026 and plan to do 12 paintings (at least). It has been a joy to work from life. I have not done still lives since my art classes in university where the objects chosen by the teacher were to challenge our realistic rendering of values and shape. Lightbulbs were stacked into tea cups and electrical cords curled across the composition. The collection of objects were bazar and they had no significance to me. Composing my own set ups and not fussing over realism has reinvigorating the still life for me.

 

Gathering blooms from the garden highlights the passage of the seasons. The flow of nature has come into focus through paying attention to what I can pick for my painting each month. I appreciate the fact that my options are specific to my location. In my arrangements, it is interesting to juxtapose the native in season blooms with the global accessibility of fresh produce shipped from all over the world. The negative environmental impact of shipping food from far away while keeping it refrigerated is appalling. The contrast between local native plants and fruits of far away is used to critique these material pleasures as apposed to celebrate them as done by historical still life paintings.  

 

I feel pride in immortalizing the every-day objects my family and I use within my paintings. The importance of hand crafts and the art of utilitarian objects is a theme throughout my work as a whole. I have used these linens on the dinner table and vases for flowers given for special occasions and celebration. Cobalt blue is common in these pieces as it is my mothers favorite color, and so we have many objects in this shade. I am also a ceramics artist, and featuring my own pottery in this series has been special. I even hand built a vase with the specific intention of painting it - what type of vessel would be fun to paint? The terracotta planter in March's Daffodils was actually a piece I made in a ceramics class in elementary school! In May Irises (and River) the backdrop is a patchwork sewn by my great grandmother Coryell. These objects, whether family heirlooms or flea-market finds are relevant to my family's history because they are woven into our ever day experiences; they deserve to be painted!