Naomi Frears

The work of Naomi Frears offers an overwhelmingly evocative experience. Her paintings are psychological explorations, emotionally charged and modestly euphoric. Displays of ethereal pleasures and wandering figures in remote scenery can be found recurrently, registered in strong figurative expressiveness. To spend time with her work is to find little in the way of straightforward comfort. Her paintings exhibit layers of journeys, realities, atmospheres steadied by concrete houses in a field or rooted landscape, figures within them which, if they glance at us directly, reveal little to us. For writer Simon Garfield, these canvases, steeped in fragments of personal and universal history, do not simply remain lodged in our memory, but allow us to ask ourselves whether “perhaps they have been our memories all along”.

The title of Frears’ work Été, meaning ‘summer’ in French, also calls to mind the French word ‘était’, translating as ‘was’ or ‘used to be’, found most famously in the sentence ‘il était une fois’; once upon a time. These linguistic references are notable, for Naomi’s work often deals with themes relating to the sensation ofnostalgia. The long, hazy days of childhood summers are invoked by this work’s title; indeed, we find a pictorial composition which is completely dominated by the warmth of a rich sunny orange hue, in which we find one lone protagonist figure basking in colour and light. While there is certainly a desolation that sets this human figure apart, the seclusion seems somewhat inviting. Separated from any form of recognisable landscape, indulging simply in pure colour, he seems connected to our world through our own nostalgic memories of these seemingly never ending peaceful summertime days.