Preview: Laura L. Bell 'Somewhere beyond'

Inspired by a collection of original photographs taken during visits to botanical gardens, this new series of work by Laura L. Bell looks to further explore her interest in the relationship between painting, photography and 'the window'.

Laura was originally drawn to the sense of abstraction, the flattened sense of space and the almost monochromatic shapes within her latest body of photographs. Through her painting she relives and explores the images, using scale, texture and the physicality of painting.

Traditionally within painting using black is avoided as it lacks a sense of depth; heavy shadow can be better achieved mixing black with other colours. By accepting the 'flatness' of black, Laura has allowed this to become it's own dimension; rather than using tone and colour to create a sense of depth, Laura has explored how this could be achieved using solely black, describing depth and shape using brush stroke, texture and finish (gloss/matt). This adds a further dimension to her work as it requires the viewer to move when looking at the painting to appreciate the subtleties within the black foliage.

From within the black the viewer looks out into the light; they are hidden but watching, pulling the curtain aside, peering up through the foliage and into the frame of the canvas.

However, this act of looking is confounded within the setting of the botanical garden; a feeling of nature trapped within a structured, mathematical, man-made box. From these paintings we peer from the wilderness, but the wilderness is restrained, as is our ability to look further.

In this series Bell's work has moved further into abstraction by exploring deeper the photographic original. Hexagonal shapes reference lens flare, whilst gold leaf catches the light upon the canvas.

The reflective surface allows the present to exist in the work, whilst blurred imagery eludes to an out

of focus snap-shot. There was once a moment, but we can reflect on it now, frozen. The moment was lived, relived and is living.