Fitzherbert’s paintings record the transient interactions of light, colour, and form in large, mixed-media abstract works on canvas. Afterimage is comprised of fifteen works that question the limits of visual representation. The title has been adopted from the optical illusion whereby an image remains in one’s vision after exposure to the original object has ceased. The works on show are highly detailed compositions of oil paint, metallic pigment, and spray paint. With multiple layers and reflections, these paintings both play upon and emulate the natural apparitions of sight. They confuse the separation of what may be physically present, artistically imagined, or a mere trick of the light. This effect is amplified by their display in the gallery, as the colours and shades are distorted by close proximity with each other, the lighting, and with the viewer’s position within the gallery space.

Purdey Fitzherbert creates works that investigate perception and explore the very act of seeing, in her mixed media works that are both interactive and personal. The role that the environment has to play in the perception of Fitzherbert’s works makes them closer to installations rather than paintings, as her works require action and interaction in order to truly bring them to life.

Works of this theoretical and aesthetic depth are groundbreaking at a time when most contemporary artists are moving towards highly stylized pop-art themes. Fitzherbert is actively pushing theories of vision and subjectivity to their limit in this series, and it goes without saying that her profundity and meticulous talent are the attributes that are making art critics sit up and take notice.

‘My work has become an investigation into perception, specifically what one sees, and how one experiences the act of seeing. I have been recording colour and light, and their fleeting playfulness. I am intrigued by the way they can appear but also dissolve from our vision. Light and colour are central to my work, but journey and silence have always been the fundamental starting points...I sometimes experience an instant of acute beauty during which something (ordinarily hidden) is briefly illuminated. This sublime glimmer of colour or light is fleeting, unlikely to be seen or experienced again. I am attempting to document light’s ephemeral nature, noticing subtle colours, which impregnate both our true vision and that of the outside world. By observing and experiencing existence so intently, it becomes hard to look past light’s trickeries, its transient and weightless nature.’ - Purdey Fitzherbert

text by Jessica Warren