Katherine Lees

View from the Loo

Jackson's Art Prize 2025
Oil
Canvas
25 x 30 cm

“I don’t see myself as someone whose life feels out of control. However, in my painting, it is nearly always my intention to create order out of chaos. In my work I look at subjects, usually still lifes, which seem impossibly ordinary, usually related to everyday domestic life, and the mundane or chaotic aspects of it. My goal is to create order, if possible beauty, and often humour from the subject and in my work. Creating the extraordinary out of the ordinary is an area that I continue to explore. I find beauty in subtlety of colour and light, which I render with careful observation aiming for an overall sense of calm both in the work and the process. View from the Loo is a view I have looked at for 24 years. Recently its innate beauty shone out to me. So I felt impelled to paint it. The process was thrilling and funny, as I knew it was impossibly mundane looking, yet would translate into its own beauty on canvas.”