Promise me one thing Painting

Paula MacArthur is a painter. Her work has matured into an increasingly painterly style, with bold use of colour and a commitment to naturalistic draughtsmanship. Working quickly and instinctively she places colour working with wet on wet glazes, merging oily translucent layers with the brush and dropping colour onto the canvas allowing it to bleed and grow into the surface. MacArthur is currently working on a series of large scale canvases based on gemstones photographed in the Natural History Museum. In the museum context gemstones are presented as scientific specimens, yet it is impossible to escape the monetary and symbolic value we all give to these perfectly polished fragments of crystal. Analytical by nature, MacArthur studies the structure of these prisms objectively whilst subjectively delving into all the personal and political associations around these tiny stones. Enlarged a thousand times these jewels transform into cosmic bodies. MacArthur attempts to describe the transitory sparkling fire and raw seductive power held within the dense permanence of each perfect structure, she captures the passion contained within a cold, hard faultlessly honed object. Like a magpie MacArthur holds a deep fascination with jewels. Their various associations are constantly vying for position - love, eternity, jealousy, temptation and greed - as she is hypnotised by the fire and meditates on the paint marks. The images deteriorate as the viewer approaches to analyse them; the focus moves from the subject to the physicality of the process of making. MacArthur works to replicate the form with gestures of both viscous and watery colour and by allowing it to slip and merge the paint becomes as ephemeral as the sparkle, echoing the unattainable ideals these minute treasures symbolise.