Painted over unfinished works of eighteenth century formal French garden designs made during a Paris studio residency in 2001 these works are based on a cornucopia of fabric balls discovered in friends’ studio in rural Finland: hand-rolled from torn fabric and intended to be woven into traditional rugs. Reminiscent of fresh rose buds each painting is a portrait commemorating a single ball resting on a decorative architectural corbel, shelf or suspended. These paintings are an homage to Gabriel Fauré’s Élégie (for Cello and Piano) and Robert Motherwell’s cycle of elegy works. Each portrait is paired with a label on which the word elegy is painted in Motherwell’s hand.
