Helix, 2006
(Oil on canvas)

Born in South Africa and educated in England, Selma Parlour graduated from Reading University in 2002 with an MA in Fine Art and has exhibited widely throughout the UK. She feels her paintings portray the ruins of buildings and leave the essence of their forms distilled, lending the structures new significance than in their previously pristine state. “In my paintings I attempt to convey the emotive qualities connected to a structure or place while losing its obvious descriptive features,” she explains. “Within these works, a key element of a form is scrutinised: a line becomes scaffolding, scaffolding becomes pipe work, pipe work becomes a path, and a path becomes a line.” In some works colour divides the painting into rooms, cornering elements and emphasising architectural devices. In others, hectic brush strokes clamour for attention next to walls of colour. In the above painting, Helix 2006, the narrative focuses on form and colour in a firm or blunt manner.

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