Vivid, eclectic, and warm, Californian artist Hilary Pecis’s intimate vignettes of interior spaces are celebrations of the sun-filled, laidback spaces of Los Angeles. Her canvases are joyful tapestries of colour, filled patchworks of pattern that are effortless and free, whilst simultaneously maintaining a certain meticulousness and intention with each mark.

 

Situated within the traditional genre of still life painting, Pecis’s distinct style of flat yet vibrant colours form an idiosyncratic visual lexicon that mimics the warmth and cosiness of afternoon sunlight, tapping into the local Southern Californian aesthetic. Fittingly, the present work was first unveiled in the artist’s solo exhibition, Warmly, with Rachel Uffner Gallery in 2022.

 

 

Beauty is in the Details

 

Pecis’s unique roster of quotidian motifs includes patterned fabrics, blooming flowers, multicoloured vases, stacks of art books, and luscious bowls of fruit inspired by the private homes of her own and her close friends. These motifs coalesce into her unique compositions that depict cluttered tabletop still lives, or wider vantages of light-flooded domestic spaces, placing an emphasis on the beauty of the small details in life:

 

“When we spend a little extra time looking at the everyday objects around us, [whether] it is the things we see inside or outside, the living and inanimate, things staged and those that move such as shadows and reflections, we notice the magic in all of those things. My attempt is to pick up on some of the nuances and elevate those things.”
— Hilary PecisIn the present work, a salon-style hang of picture frames on the back wall features an array of animals and flora, echoing the main subject matter in the foreground. Characterised by the use of Fauvist hues and flat blocks of colour, Hilary Pecis captures the laid back mood of Californian life with a unique colour palette that connects the natural movements of sunlight with shadow and reflection. Pecis’s unique depiction of objects such as glass vases demonstrates the artist’s technique prowess, whereby the nuances of light are carefully translated into smaller blocks of refracted colour.

 

 

 

Rendered in bright yellow and orange, the tablecloth is a backdrop that vies for the viewer’s attention against the vases of freshly blooming flowers at the centre of the canvas. In a more conventional still life, the crowded gallery wall of picture frames would be blurry and muted; but in Pecis’s compositions, each element fights to be the centre of attention, seemingly clashing yet coexisting in complete harmony. This is achieved in part through a restricted colour palette: the blazing red is the same whether it colours a flower in the picture frame on the wall, the roses in the centre, or the ceramic vase to the right. The burnt ochre – one of Pecis’s most characteristic colours – is present not only on the tablecloth, but also on the flowers and in the background.

 

Colour is flat, blunt, and wild in the artist’s work, assembled in a certain order within self-determined constraints – like a paint by numbers drawing. For Pecis, the painterly quality of the acrylic medium is key in achieving the flatness of space: ‘I love the flatness of acrylic. When I had a home studio I used acrylic out of necessity, but as my practice developed I embraced the qualities of the medium. My paintings have been likened to a paint-by-numbers, which is exactly how I go about making a painting. There are no blended parts that might require the ease of oil, and the flatness of acrylic really speaks to the way that I like to depict space.’ ⁱ

 

 

Reimagining Still Life

 

“Still lifes and interiors are deeply rooted in the history of representational painting. There are all these opportunities to noodle away at other artists' or artisans' mark-making, trying to depict something that isn't mine… It's an opportunity to further my own vocabulary.”
— Hilary Pecis 

Flowers and vases have been a key theme that still life painters return to throughout the years. Employing brushwork that is simultaneously effortless yet maintaining a methodical crispness, Pecis stays in close dialogue with Old Masters such as Pierre Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse, yet still keeps excellent company with Modernists such as David Hockney – both Pecis and Hockney share their love for depicting Californian light and lifestyles.

In works such as Untitled, Pecis’s use of a soft yet vibrant colour palette recalls works by Fauvist artists such as Matisse’s Still Life with Apples on a Pink Tablecloth, who undoubtedly influenced Pecis’s artistic approach. As she recalls the first time she saw his works: ‘I remember thinking “That is the best painting I've ever seen in my life.” It just shifted the way I looked at things.’ ⁱⁱ

 

 

On the other hand, critics have often drawn parallels between Pecis and David Hockney, as both artists are known for their depictions of their own intimate versions of L.A.: one outdoor, one indoor – one that is filled with cool blue pools of water and rustic canyons, and one that is reminiscent of an art-loving friend’s home that fills her space with picture frames, cosy cushions and fresh flowers. However, different from Hockney, Pecis does not include human figures in her work, emphasising the visual relationship between objects themselves. Despite the slight divergence between the two painters’ stylistic choices, they’re definitely on the same wavelength.

 

 

A Room of One's Own

 “The things we surround ourselves with are signifiers of who we are and who we want to be.”
— Hilary Pecis

 

Observation, deep attention, and the unique temporalities of the quotidian are precisely the playing fields of Pecis’s painting practice. Viewers are invited to inhabit Pecis’s first-person experiences: each canvas is created in life-size formats, calling the viewer to step into the painter’s shoes. The absence of any human figure positions the viewer as the protagonist, seated at the table with the exact view presented. Though generally devoid of figures, Pecis’s work is still imbued with a distinct human touch – walking by her works, the presence of lives well-lived seeps through. There lies the cheerful existence of people who ate, cooked, read, lounged in these spaces, living their Bohemian L.A. lifestyle. When seen through Pecis’ eyes, familiar interiors and landscapes of L.A. encourage us to celebrate the quiet power and vibrant beauty of the everyday.

 

“I love the idea that those objects either define who they are or who they aspire to be. In addition to that, there is a pleasure in painting the way objects interact with each other as figures themselves.”
— Hilary Pecis

 

More importantly, the objects in Pecis’s works become subjects and figures themselves that interact with each other, activating dialogue between the square of the picture frames and the voluptuous round lines of the flower vases. Each trinket carries its own presence as each line and pattern creates a layered topography that is amplified on a larger canvas. In examples by Van Gogh, Matisse and Hockney, we see this explored in a myriad of ways. All three artists experiment with their own unique vantage points, introducing different angles of portraying one’s space: while Van Gogh brings a skewed perspective, Matisse presents a straight on wide angle view. Hockney, on the other hand, combines several vantage points into one, incorporating a unique Cubist flair.

These careful, lush depictions of relatively inexpensive decor — exhibition posters, tablecloths, picture frames, stacks of art works, wallpaper, paintbrushes — capture interior lives and aspirations better, perhaps, than direct portraiture might. In other words, you may not get a person’s face, but you get a sense of who they are. Each artist, including Pecis, explores found arrangements in private spaces – each one a pocket of expression that is rich with clues about its inhibitor’s lifestyle and values.

 

 

Collector's Digest

 

• Hilary Pecis was born in Fullerton, California in 1979, and studied at the California College of Arts in Berkeley. Having spent much of her life in San Francisco, she moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and still works and lives in the city. Her works place a strong emphasis on local landscapes and domestic interiors, most known by her paintings that depict vases of flowers and stacks of art books.

• Pecis began her initial contact with the art world as a registrar at David Kordansky gallery, she then transitioned to a full-time artist in 2019.

• Since 2021, David Kordansky has been representing the artist in conjunction with Timothy Taylor and Rachel Uffner Gallery.

• Pecis’s first solo show with the gallery, and her most recent: Paths Crossed, has just closed earlier this year on 22nd April 2023.

• Following a solo exhibition at Bejing’s Spurs Gallery in 2020, collectors with private museums in the Asian region have added her works to their collections. Her paintings now reside at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, the Zhuzhong Museum in Beijing, and the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, among others.

• The artist’s other solo exhibitions include: Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York (2022); Rockefeller Center, New York (2021); Timothy Taylor, London (2021) and Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York (2020).

• Her work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Florida; Aïshti Foundation,
Beirut; Columbus Museum of Art; Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

 

 

ⁱ Hilary Pecis, quoted in ‘Hilary Pecis - 'I think of painting as an endurance activity, a series of small movements that add up to a finished piece'’, ARTSPACE, 4 November 22, online

ⁱⁱ ibid.