We are delighted to announce that Francesca Mollett is embarking on the RIA Residency in Scotland with the Roberts Institute this October.
Mollett makes paintings that reflect on space, abstraction and detail. Focusing on specific elements of an environment or place, such as doorways and glossy and reflective surfaces on buildings, Mollett creates compositions that are abstractions from and atmospheric evocations of these details. While in residence Mollett will be exploring the perception and representation of light effects and natural phenomena such as iridescence in painting.
Her references in preparation for the residency span from researching Nicholas Poussin to lichen, thinking around the abstraction of a figure or a motif as well as how we perceive surfaces. She will be painting throughout her residency making use of the RIA in-house studio space. Mollett will focus on details in the surrounding landscape and the River South Esk, reflecting on looking itself and how to translate multiple viewpoints into painting. She is interested in exploring shimmering and iridescent effects, which occur under specific light and atmospheric conditions and depend on the angle of looking.
These shifting states are a central concern for Mollett, and during the residency, she will continue to look into metamorphosis and materials that appear on the cusp of transformation or which seem to be in multiple states at the same time. While in residence, she will explore how such states exist in the natural world, looking at lichens and mosses in the surrounding forests and the ways in which their variegated surfaces absorb and scatter light.
Francesca will research the work of Nicolas Poussin in the Scottish National Galleries and consider how time plays out in his paintings, allowing for multiple points of focus to coexist. While in residence Mollett will work on paintings for her upcoming solo show at GRIMM in New York, scheduled for Spring 2024.
