Catherine Asquith Gallery is delighted to announce that Sydney-based artist, Marcella Kaspar will be showcasing her latest series, entitled “L’Heure Bleue”*, throughout October and November this year. A collection of luscious paintings composed of elegant arrangements of peonie roses: Marcella Kaspar’s latest exhibition continues her exploration of the transient nature of beauty.

Marcella Kaspar's preferred subject is the flower; the ephemeral nature of flowers and how they can reflect the transient nature of life. Traditionally trained, Kaspar's predominant technique is refining and effecting light and dark through the 17th Century techniques of opaque layering and transparent glazing. Her paintings are also a study of complex tonal variations, with an emphasis on colour relationships, the study of changeability and the delicate nuances of colour.

Detailed, 'super-real' oils on linen, lashings of colour and atmospheric light are the notable features of Marcella's paintings. Although initially the paintings may be perceived as 'decorative', closer scrutiny provides an insight into the artist's painterly skills; Marcella's proportional scales invite the viewer into exotic cocoons, switching the focus on to beauty, stillness and meditation. As Marcella states, "I dance with the traditional principles and techniques. Having tasted the Old Masters and digested them, there is the ultimate hope that the Old Masters' essential styles and techniques begin to suggest themselves through my work."

Marcella Kaspar was a student of the Charlie Sheard Studio School, where she studied the oil painting techniques and principles of the Old Masters. In addition to exhibiting in Australia Marcella has also exhibited to great success in the United Arab Emirates, Europe and Amercia. She has been a finalist in the “Alice Art Prize”, and last year, she was a finalist in the “John Leslie Art Prize”. In 2009 she participated in the “Florence Biennale” winning the “President’s Prize”. Her work is held in significant private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA, Switzerland, France, Canada, the UK and the Czech Republic.

*'' L'heure Bleue'' translates loosely as “the magic between daylight and night when flowers smell at their sweetest and and colours are the most intense and most inspiring; dusk or at dawn; a special but short time like the transience of a flower or life itself.