cotton, perpetuate, shine

 
*Chosen by Contemporary British Painting as 'painting of the day'

*Axisweb included this in their 'highlights'

*The image was used on publicity material for Zena Blackwell's solo show Seen Not Heard in November 2018

'The sources for Zena Blackwell’s imagery are the threads of family life; observations of her children in varying domestic scenarios at rest or at play. With a stylised intensity of vibrant colour and pattern, the paintings elevate the everyday beyond the ordinary. The Mother / artist’s viewpoint is there as a subversive sub-text throughout the work, revealing an intensity and shift in the ‘normal’ scale of things; to claustrophobic effect. Underneath the witnessed moment of an apparently innocent snapshot of childhood, there is the constant undertone of adult anxiety, and a sense of building drama.' Zoe Gingell