Marie Lenclos’ Still Light

Artist Marie Lenclos introduces her new exhibition of paintings Still Light which opens at Townhouse this Saturday 28th September and runs until Sunday 13th October

Blue Door, Fournier St

‘When I first came to London in the nineties as an Erasmus student, Spitafields immediately became a favourite place to explore. For a young Parisian, there was magic in its dense urban fabric. Brick Lane was where you went to find a cheap bike or pick up old crockery. There were surprises at every corner, human stories or colourful stalls, and the tall town houses loomed over you with the weight of their past. I liked the fact I was a foreigner amongst many others.

This was before the creation of the Overground which opened a whole new transport route for me between my home in Denmark Hill and an area of London I still love to get lost in. I walk down Fournier St and the whole place feels like a museum to me, every street corner evokes a scene from another era. The industrial past is ever present and the richness of old brickwork is illuminated by the fleeting sunlight.

These oil paintings are a record of what I notice when I walk these streets. There is noise everywhere, the perpetual movement of passers by, hurried workers carrying coffees, cars starting and stalling, suddenly honking. But to me, there is only calm. When I focus on the scene in front of me, with its play of light and its colourful texture, it is like a mental pause.

My paintings are urban landscapes caught in a moment of calm amongst the chaos. Light is the most important actor, its role is to reveal the permanence and unexpected beauty.’ – Marie Lenclos