Paula MacArthur

‘For me, crystals encapsulate love, life, the universe and perhaps even everything. My paintings are explorations of colour and light. They are a contemporary response to Dutch 17th century Pronkstilleven painting – ostentatious still lifes depicting desirable objects which invite us to consider the transience of life, the emptiness of wealth and the certainty of death.
 
The otherworldliness of these glassy, geometric forms sparks infinite imaginings on love and loss, joy and pain. In oil paint I find an equivalent magic and I use luminous colour to create intricate landscapes and new, unreachable worlds. These are metaphors for the fragility of the planet we inhabit, the human condition, but also a recognition of the potential joy in the here and now.’

Biography
Paula MacArthur (b. 1967 Enfield) is a painter based in Rye, East Sussex.

Recent exhibitions include ‘At Cross Purposes’ touring four venues in Wales and Northern Ireland, ‘Arcadia for all? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now’, touring from The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds University to Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester, ‘Paint Fiction’ International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, USA and ‘Of Lightness’ at Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London.

In 2024, Paula won Matthew Burrows’ Judge’s Choice Award at the Jackson’s Art Prize. In 1993 she was a prizewinner at John Moores Painting Prize and she won the JPS Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in 1989. Other highlights include ‘Made in Britain’ at the National Gallery in Gdańsk, Poland, ‘Contemporary Masters from Britain’ which toured four museums in China and ‘Slippery & Amorphous’ touring from London to Brooklyn. Her work is held in private and public collections around the world.