Still Life

Still life paintings must be the slowest paintings in the NGV. What could be slower than stopping so completely that you're actually still? In the middle of a city of people on the go, I slowed right down to step inside the NGV, and then stood entirely still in the Joseph Brown Collection to ponder Brett Whiteley's Still Life with Cornflowers (1976).

There is something very calm and meditative about the painting: it's spare and full of white space, but this accentuates the vividness of the blue cornflowers in a vase, the richness of the burgundy cherries, and the voluptuous curves of the pear and garlic bulb.

Whiteley painted this work during the period in which his main subject became his immediate surroundings: the inside of his studio or the view from his widow. There's something wonderful about being able to appreciate ordinary and domestic objects that stand right in front of you; something as simple as a piece of fruit or a flower.

Nearby in the same collection, Margaret Preston's still life Flannel Flowers (1939) is one of ten the artist painted of Australian flora. Preston argued that 'rather than seeking inspiration solely from European and Western sources, Australian artists should find knowledge closer to home from both Indigenous and Asian cultures.' Forget about the grandiose, the epic and things that are considered 'important'. Celebrating the ordinary, and finding new ways to see the beauty in familiar objects is the key to still life - and to a slow life as well.

By Beth Hall