Melanie Vandenbrouck on her choice, 'The Woven Warped Garden of Ponder' by Jadé Fadojutimi
‘I love the exuberance of colours, expressive brushstrokes and animated textures of Jadé Fadojutimi’s work. Each of her canvases carries such life, depth and poetic resonance, her visual language mirrored by her evocative word-smithing.
'They are open, too: to interpretation and emotional response, changing depending on the light, the day’s mood, a soundtrack.
'I could lose myself in this piece, with its luscious greens and liquid blues punctuated by delicious reds, pinks and oranges. The artist alternates skin-like, translucent layers of paint with generous, concentrated build-ups of matter — true to the contrasting qualities of acrylic and oil.’
Melanie Vandenbrouck is the chief curator at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, West Sussex. ‘John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey’ at Pallant House Gallery, until 21 April 2024.
Charlotte Mullins comments on 'The Woven Warped Garden of Ponder'
Looking at Jadé Fadojutimi’s The Woven Warped Garden of Ponder is an embodied experience. This is partly because it is huge — nearly 10ft wide — and partly because the artist puts her heart and soul into each work. In this painting, scarlet, lemon, turquoise and pink leaves and petals seem to dance across the surface and a shape that could be a figure reclines in the grass under what could be a large tropical leaf.
There is always a specific memory or experience behind each of Miss Fadojutimi’s paintings, but the resulting work is often abstract, an assured display of colour and form that nevertheless has an intense emotional charge. She is synaesthetic and colour drives her work.
The biggest inspiration for her paintings is Japanese anime. She is a British woman of Nigerian heritage and some people initially questioned why she was drawing on another nation’s culture for her work, but, in childhood, her emotional sensitivity led to periods of depression and it was anime, in particular Sailor Moon, that helped her navigate life.
Since graduating from the Royal College of Art with a Masters degree six years ago, her powerful paintings have catapulted her to stardom. Her paintings have been acquired by institutions worldwide including Tate in the UK and, in the US, the Met and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. She is represented globally by Gagosian, Galerie Gisela Capitain and Taka Ishii Gallery.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
The Country Life Podcast
Listen to all the episodes of the Country Life Podcast.
-
If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future tooIt's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
-
Gaze over Cap Ferrat in this four-bedroom French villaIgnore the wind and the rain. Imagine yourself in this hillside home with some of the best views the Mediterranean can offer.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
