Drawings and paintings by Pamela Brañas and Sharon Kitching

‘Seen’ brings together a combined body of work by Brañas and Kitching, relating to the familiar and every day occurrences they see – observations made commuting on the train, travelling to work or sitting in the pub. These drawings and paintings reveal the inner life we fictionalise strangers with, and what we observe. If every realisation is a reveal of our own selves, then this exhibition is about the meditation of the observer. Drawing is a brief transcendent occurrence that helps us to transform the urban stresses we encounter on a daily basis. Drawing helps us understand human behaviour of the instant. The character is captured on the sketchbook, imagined, developed and re-created as paintings. 

Brañas has selected a cross section of passengers from her collection of commute time sketches for this exhibition. The diversity of individuals in the everyday activity of commuting on the train is a fascinating subject matter and has given inspiration to develop paintings for this show. These paintings are dedicated to portraying the feelings and expressions of the anonymous passenger travelling on the same carriage on the train journey to and from work. 

Kitching draws as white noise, in meetings, on buses, while watching the television. These drawings filter into her work, and become painting studies in themselves, mixed in with life drawing sessions and scribbles of strangers seen on the street. Her interest in true crime and the broken narrative of the moment create half fact, half fictional paintings about the scene. Figures in her paintings are built up from progressive paint layers, revealing a history of the previous figures and paint, and previous decisions beneath. A painting is considered finished when the figure(s) resist any further change. The work is largely figurative and reflects her interest in portraiture, and particularly in the gaze.  The paintings play with the interaction between colour and the psychological aspects of portraiture, featuring a palette of hyper high-key yellows or blues, and carry in them a history of past decisions, changes and wrong turns. Paintings/drawings can show both the intention, and the decision.

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