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Lot Essay
During the latter half of the 1990s Barns-Graham embarked on her Scorpio Series works, of which there are three groups. They were painted in response to her frustration of spending three hours being interviewed by a critic only to be told afterwards that the tape recorder had failed to work.
Lynne Green comments that, 'Barns-Graham was very upset: more painting time would be lost, and she felt that she could ill afford the disruption. Her answer was to throw herself furiously into her work. Using acrylic paints on paper she rapidly produced the first of what became the Scorpio Series: the title was 'encouraged', she says, by the month (November) and its star sign - particularly apt, she felt, because it has a sting in its tail! Always cautious of explicit titles that define or restrict the reading of her work, the artist tends to name work, if not for the initial inspiration, then in response to the resonance the finished image has for her: the association, feeling or visual sensation it generates. In this case the reference is less to the zodiac sign than to colour vibrancy and gestural vigour - many of the series undoubtedly have a visual 'sting'' (see W. Barns-Graham: a studio life, Aldershot, 2001, pp. 265-6).
Lynne Green comments that, 'Barns-Graham was very upset: more painting time would be lost, and she felt that she could ill afford the disruption. Her answer was to throw herself furiously into her work. Using acrylic paints on paper she rapidly produced the first of what became the Scorpio Series: the title was 'encouraged', she says, by the month (November) and its star sign - particularly apt, she felt, because it has a sting in its tail! Always cautious of explicit titles that define or restrict the reading of her work, the artist tends to name work, if not for the initial inspiration, then in response to the resonance the finished image has for her: the association, feeling or visual sensation it generates. In this case the reference is less to the zodiac sign than to colour vibrancy and gestural vigour - many of the series undoubtedly have a visual 'sting'' (see W. Barns-Graham: a studio life, Aldershot, 2001, pp. 265-6).