Texture

Point: The texture is implied through patterns and detail.

Describe: The intricate floral patterns on the vases and the textured grid on the tablecloth suggest a variety of materials.

Explain: These implied textures give the scene a realistic tactile quality, helping the viewer imagine the surfaces of the objects, even though the painting is two-dimensional.

Point: The flowers suggest natural, soft textures.

Describe: The detailed depiction of petals and leaves through blended brush work implies the softness of real flowers.

Explain: This contrast between the soft organic forms of the flowers and the harder edges of the vases creates a pleasing variety of textures within the artwork.

Point: Smooth and polished surfaces in the vases and candles.

Describe: The vases and candle holders are depicted with smooth, clean surfaces that contrast with the more textured elements like the flowers and tablecloth.

Explain: These smoother surfaces help create a sense of material variety, enhancing the viewer's sense of depth and realism in the still life.

Line

Point: The image employs thick, black outlines.

Describe: Objects like the vases, flowers, and picture frames are all sharply defined by bold, black lines.

Explain: These outlines provide a sense of separation and clarity between objects, helping the viewer distinguish between the many elements in the busy scene.

Point: The tablecloth features diagonal, intersecting lines.

Describe: A grid pattern is formed by yellow and white lines on the tablecloth, creating a distinct geometric design.

Explain: This grid-like structure contrasts with the more fluid and organic shapes of the flowers, providing visual interest and structure to the scene.

Point: Vertical lines draw the eye upward.

Describe: The flowers and candles create vertical lines that extend from the bottom of the table to above the vases.

Explain: These vertical elements help balance the horizontal lines of the tablecloth, drawing attention upwards to the intricate details of the flowers and the background wall.

Shape

Point: The image combines geometric and organic shapes.

Describe: Geometric shapes like rectangles are seen in the picture frames, while organic, natural shapes are used for the flowers.

Explain: This combination creates a contrast between the rigid, structured forms and the softer, more natural elements, adding to the dynamic feel of the image.

Point: Circular shapes dominate the vases and flower heads.

Describe: The vases feature circular patterns, and many of the flowers have rounded shapes, such as the roses and yellow pompom-like flowers.

Explain: These circular shapes add harmony to the composition and make the flowers feel fuller and more lively.

Point: Repeated rectangular shapes in the picture frames.

Describe: The background wall is filled with numerous rectangular picture frames of varying sizes and colours.

Explain: These repeated rectangular shapes create a sense of rhythm and cohesion, giving structure to the busy background.

Scale

Point: The objects are depicted on an exaggerated scale.

Describe: The flowers and vases seem disproportionately large compared to the objects on the wall behind them.

Explain: This plays with perspective, making the objects in the foreground dominate the composition and drawing the viewer’s focus to their bright, detailed forms.

Point: The image contains a variety of scales.

Describe: While the flowers and vases are large and central, the pictures on the wall are much smaller and recede into the background.

Explain: This variation in scale helps create a sense of depth, despite the flatness of the overall composition.

Point: The use of actual scale in the canvas 188 x 162.6 cm adds a sense of wonder.

Describe: The work of art is taller than an average person making everything on the work larger than life.

Explain: This huge scale enhances the viewer’s engagement with the piece, making the experience of looking at it more immersive.

Subject Matter or imagery 

Point: The wall is filled with framed pictures that depict a variety of scenes and objects.

Describe: The background is a gallery of framed images, showing animals, landscapes, and abstract designs in a seemingly random arrangement.

Explain: The inclusion of these framed images adds complexity to the composition, giving it a layered feel. The images within the frames can be seen as representations of art within art, expanding the subject matter to include themes of curation and personal taste.

Point: The framed images on the wall include several depictions of animals.

Describe: There are pictures of a horse, a dog, and other animal scenes within the frames on the wall.

Explain: These animals may symbolise various qualities, such as loyalty (the dog) or freedom (the horse), or they might simply be part of the personal collection of images decorating the room, adding a layer of domesticity and familiarity to the scene.

Point: The flowers symbolise beauty, life, and the passage of time.

Describe: The central placement of vibrant, large flowers such as roses and lilies represents natural beauty and the life cycle, with flowers traditionally symbolising both life and decay.

Explain: While the flowers appear full of life, their presence in a still life may allude to the theme of memento mori—the reminder of life's fleeting nature. The choice of vivid, unreal colours might suggest an emphasis on beauty's artificiality and its preservation through art.

Style

Point: The use of everyday objects in a contemporary, graphic manner suggests modern influences.

Describe: The artwork takes ordinary items—flowers, vases, and picture frames—and presents them in a modern, visually striking way through bold lines and flat colours.

Explain: This use of contemporary graphic techniques gives the work a fresh, modern feel, while still referencing traditional decorative and folk art elements.

Point: The simplified, stylised forms are reminiscent of folk art traditions.

Describe: The flowers, animals, and objects are rendered with minimal detail and a sense of naivety, similar to the forms seen in traditional folk art.

Explain: This use of simple, approachable forms and vibrant colours suggests an influence from folk art, which often celebrates the handmade and the everyday in an unpretentious manner.

Point: The work is reminiscent of Pop Art in its use of bright colours and bold outlines.

Describe: The bright, saturated colours, flatness, and clean lines evoke the aesthetic commonly seen in Pop Art, which often draws inspiration from everyday objects.

Explain: This connection to Pop Art suggests an interest in elevating ordinary or decorative objects into the realm of high art, blurring the lines between fine art and popular culture.

Working Methods

Point: Pecis creates large-scale works that are propped against the walls of her studio.

Describe: Due to the size of her paintings, such as in Untitled 4, Pecis paints with the canvases leaning against the walls of her large studio space.

Explain: This method allows her to easily access all areas of the canvas, facilitating the painting of large works without the need for excessive movement or repositioning of the canvas.

Point: Pecis uses both photo references and memory to inform her work.

Describe: She often takes multiple photographs of her subjects, like the interior of a friend’s house in Untitled 4, and combines these references with her own memories.

Explain: By blending photographic references with personal memory, Pecis creates compositions that feel intimate and lively, capturing the essence of a place or person while allowing for a more fluid, imaginative representation.

Point: Pecis merges multiple references to create complex, busy compositions.

Describe: In Untitled 4, Pecis combined several photos she took of her friend's house to construct a single, chaotic scene.

Explain: This technique of merging different perspectives and moments into one composition helps Pecis convey the layered and multifaceted nature of her subjects, capturing various aspects of her friend’s personality within one lively and dynamic scene.

Point: Pecis begins by painting directly onto the canvas in black acrylic with no prior sketches

Describe: She establishes the basic shapes and scale of the composition using black acrylic paint.

Explain: This method allows Pecis to quickly outline the overall structure of her work, setting the composition directly on the canvas without needing to rely on preliminary sketches, speeding up her process and maintaining spontaneity.

Use of Materials

Point: Pecis primarily uses acrylic paint for her compositions.

Describe: She often applies acrylic paint directly to the canvas, using it for both the initial outlining and the subsequent layers of colour.

Explain: Acrylic paint dries quickly, which supports Pecis’s fluid and spontaneous process. It allows her to build up layers without long drying times, helping her maintain the momentum of her work as she makes decisions directly on the canvas.

Point: Black acrylic is used to establish the composition early in the process.

Describe: Pecis starts her work by painting the basic outlines and shapes in black acrylic, setting the foundation of the composition before adding colours.

Explain: This use of black acrylic helps her quickly define the structure of the piece, creating a strong framework that guides the placement of forms and elements within the painting. It also contrasts with the bright, bold colours that follow, creating a clear visual hierarchy.

Point: Pecis’s uses hiqh quality acrylic to ensure application of paint is flat and graphic.

Describe: In her paintings, Pecis often uses flat areas of colour with little blending or shading, creating a graphic, poster-like aesthetic.

Explain: The flat application of paint reinforces the stylised, illustrative quality of her work. This method allows her to focus on patterns, textures, and bold contrasts, aligning with her emphasis on design rather than realism. Acrylic’s ability to be applied evenly without visible brushstrokes supports this clean, graphic style.