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Overview
"I paint familiar objects-crockery on a dresser shelf, fresh fish on patterned linens-not as passive still lifes, but as celebrations of home and the private theatre of the everyday" - Ollie Tuck.
Olivia (Ollie) Tuck is a Sussex-based still life painter whose work has been exhibited with the Royal Society of Marine Artists, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Society of Women Artists. Her paintings respond to the colour and light she finds in everyday subjects, combining traditional still life themes with a contemporary use of pattern in highly decorative, joyful compositions. Rooted in domestic life, her work treats familiar objects, crockery on a dresser shelf, fresh fish laid on patterned linen, as celebrations of home and the small rituals of the everyday. Her achievements have been recognised with a series of awards, including second place for the Stanley Grimm Memorial Award at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 2022, the RSMA Next Generation Award and the Holly Bush Painter Prize for Best Figurative Painting in 2021. Olivia's journey as a painter began with portraits of friends and family, and took a decisive turn at around seventeen when she started visiting exhibitions. Largely self-taught, she developed her skills through sustained practice and observation, and colour quickly emerged as the defining feature of her work, as it remains today. Her move into still life, and food subjects in particular, came during the lockdowns, when regular trips to local farm shops and fishmongers supplied both her subjects and, frequently, the ingredients for that evening's meal. She discovered that a mackerel on a patterned cloth or a bowl of ripening tomatoes could hold as much visual interest as any grander subject. Working primarily in oils, Olivia values the medium's versatility and the range of surfaces and effects it makes possible. Her aim is to create paintings that draw the viewer in to study the brushwork at close range before stepping back to take in the whole. She finds great satisfaction in the continuous learning her practice demands, and in the moments of breakthrough that move her work forward.
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Works for sale
Ollie Tuck
Rained InOil on Gesso Primed Board25.5 x 19 cms / 10 x 7½ inchesSigned 'OT' (lower right)Description
Ollie’s interiors feel like a natural extension of her still lifes. The focus has widened from the things that furnish everyday life, whether a cup of tea, a favourite piece of crockery or flowers brought into the kitchen, to the rooms in which those little moments take place. Her own description of her practice is rooted in the intimacy of domestic life and the “private theatre of the everyday”; even the fabrics and ceramics that appear in her still lifes are objects collected and used within her own home. For Small Pleasures, Ollie began looking beyond her own home too, visiting friends across the country and painting interiors that hold a particular resonance for her. These are not immaculate or staged. What interests her is the evidence of life: rooms that have been lived in, surfaces gathering objects, a cup left beside the sink. In this sense, the interiors become portraits of life without requiring a person to appear.
Rained In began with plans interrupted by an early-summer downpour. Instead of looking elsewhere for a subject, Ollie turned her attention inwards, to the comfort and intimacy of an unexpected afternoon at home. “There’s a strange pleasure in plans being cancelled because the weather’s made the decision for you,” she recalls, “tea in hand, embracing the ritual of cosiness instead.”
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