david turley

House Plant Care, 2021–ongoing

oil, watercolour, wax crayon and pencil on paper

50 x 38 cm (framed dimensions) 

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House Plant Care is an ongoing series of 168 paintings, each based on a small photograph from a found book of the same name. A chance street find, the book contains an A-to-Z of 168 house plants, which are translated sequentially into paintings.

A practical manual published in 1986, the book offers guidance on how to identify, clean, handle, protect and display them. But in the studio, these instructions began to shift. They become a way of thinking about the act of painting itself. Made in oil, watercolour, wax crayon and pencil on paper, the works echo their source images while moving away from botanical documentation or direct still life. Leaves, stems, flowers and pots are reworked. The plants become subjects through which to consider daily rhythm and repetition, and the circularity of time. Found forms are translated through surface, atmosphere, material and memory. The found image becomes not something to repeat, but something to spend time with.