Sue Read R.I. (b.1941), “Tea Bowl & Pearl on a Linen Cloth”, Watercolour

Sue Read, R.I. (b.1941)
“Still Life (Tea Bowl and Pearl on Linen)" (circa 1988)
Signed with initials "S.R." (lower right)
Watercolour 

Measures:-
12.5 cm by 13.2 cm 

A highly accomplished watercolour by this distinguished member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.

Sue Read was born in 1941 and brought up in Buckinghamshire where she was educated at Aylesbury Grammar School before attending High Wycombe School of Art 1959-1963. She then studied further at the Royal West of England Academy 1963-1964. She is known for her small, contemplative still life subjects in which she builds up transparent watercolour washes to capture the peculiar light-reflecting qualities of certain objects. She often depicts porcelain bowls, small fruits and berries, flowers, eggs and shells.

Sue's work has been shown by a number of well-known London galleries and exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the New English Art Club and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (of which she is an elected member). Her studio is now located in Suffolk.

Here Sue Read juxtaposes an 18th Century porcelain tea bowl, seen from above, with a single pearl - observing the sharp reflections and rounded shadows on the porcelain bowl and the waxier iridescence to the surface of the solitary pearl, brilliantly representing both the concave hollow of the tea bowl alongside the spherical pearl. Both objects are placed on top of a third item: a pink double-damask linen tablecloth (used as a background to other pieces by the artist dating to this time). The work nears the character of a trompe-l'œil and is almost Pre-Raphaelite-like in its attention to detail. It beautifully captures the unique qualities of each material. There is also an interesting dialogue between objects, artist and viewer: each item depicted was once especially prized, valued or treasured but each is now generally disregarded, dismissed or taken for granted except by the most knowledgeable, appreciative and observant of connoisseurs.