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In her series, Vessels of Holding, Lizzie Pannell’s still lifes reveal a new compositional clarity, marking a notable development from her earlier explorations of immersive floral fields. Where her previous works dissolved spatial depth into all-encompassing planes of colour, these recent paintings root themselves in the structure and symbolism of the still life tradition. This shift aligns her practice with the legacy of the Dutch vanitas, where the beauty and fragility of flowers remind us of life’s transience and the persistence of memory.
The subdued backgrounds of these works heighten the activity within the glass and ceramic vessels, their reflections, distortions, and refractions. The contrast between calm surroundings and the chaotic play of light within the vases mirrors the duality of emotional life. These vessels become metaphors for the body; transparent yet opaque, fragile yet full, containers of experience and emotion.
There is an inner turbulence suggested by the reflections; a reminder that, while onemay appear composed, there is always more beneath the surface. Pannell invitesviewers to question not only what the vessel (the body) holds, but what it sees, what worlds are mirrored upon it’s surface, and what emotions remain contained within.
Together, these works extend Pannell’s ongoing inquiry into the emotional language of still life. Her vessels and blooms, though outwardly calm, hold the fullness of life, memory, tension, loss, and quiet resilience.
“To live is to hold joy and sorrow in the same hands” - Lizzie Pannell
Holding Time
In Holding Time, a glass vase brimming with dried hydrangeas rests upon a stack of old books, beside an unlit candle. The hydrangeas, long past their bloom, retain a haunting beauty, their faded petals echoing the quiet dignity of the aged books beneath them. These books, now largely replaced by digital forms, serve as relics of a simpler, slower past, objects of knowledge, touch, heritage, and memory. Together, the books and flowers form a poignant meditation on endurance and obsolescence: both aged, both precious, both still capable of holding beauty. The restrained, warm palette and softened background lend the piece a contemplative stillness. Holding Time is both elegy and celebration; a recognition that even as time passes and forms fade, there remains grace in what endures.
Framing Spaces
In this painting by Pannell, a new compositional clarity emerges from the artist’s earlier explorations of all-encompassing floral fields. Whereas previous works dissolved spatial depth in favour of immersive chromatic planes, often using ambiguous stacked or aerial perspectives, this painting marks a notable development. Here, the still life structure is more defined: a rustic wooden table holds a white jug brimming with flowers, and beneath it, a tightly tucked chair creates a visual tension between presence and absence, intimacy and distance.
The choice to anchor the composition in the formal language of still life painting aligns Pannell’s work with historical references, particularly the Dutch vanitas tradition, where flowers often served as symbols of transience and beauty. Yet unlike traditional memento mori, which tend to overwhelm with symbolic overdetermination, this work resists didacticism. Instead, the objects serve as containers of space, simultaneously grounding the scene and complicating its spatial logic. The table and jug take up the full pictorial plane in a way that feels both practical and staged, used yet uninhabited. The chair’s presence, half-visible and half-consumed by the lower frame, reinforces this ambivalence, as if someone has just left, or is yet to arrive.
What remains most compelling is the treatment of space and surface. The softly modulated wall behind the still life flattens the image while also hinting at a subtle spatial recession, aided by the vertical brushwork and tonal variation. This creates a push-pull dynamic reminiscent of Hans Hofmann’s spatial theories, though rendered here with a muted tonal palette and controlled precision. The result is a painting that feels at once calming and slightly uncanny, familiar yet suspended. It suggests a deepening of Pannell’s engagement with interiority, not only in spatial terms but as a psychological or affective state
Reflections
In Reflections, a deep green void surrounds a luminous glass that holds a delicate trio: a white daisy, a pink chrysanthemum, and a stem of red berries. Each element carries its own quiet symbolism; the daisy suggesting innocence and purity, the chrysanthemum embodying honour and love, and the berries evoking blood and sacrifice. Together, they form a fragile constellation of emotion and meaning, held in tension within the same glass body.
The composition is serene, yet within the vessel’s mirrored surface a flurry of distorted light and colour creates a quiet intensity. The reflections are alive, chaotic, vibrant, unpredictable, standing in contrast to the tranquil backdrop. This unlikely pairing of blooms and berries, differing in size, colour, and temperament, suggests interdependence: how a single vessel, like the human body or psyche, must sustain many varying needs and emotions.
There is tenderness here, but also unease, a harmony built from difference, held together by the transparent vessel that both contains and reveals. In this way, Reflections becomes a meditation on empathy, resilience, and the complex act of carrying both beauty and burden within a single, fragile form.
Writing Cosmos
In Writing Cosmos, a delicate bouquet of white cosmos flowers sits poised within a translucent blue glass vase, emerging luminously from an enveloping darkness. The composition immediately strikes a balance between fragility and resilience, between the whisper of light and the vast, absorbing blackness that surrounds it.
The cosmos flowers, painted with intricate attention to texture and tone, appear to frolic together, their soft petals overlapping and leaning, as though in gentle conversation or dance. This sense of movement imbues them with a human quality: they socialise and support one another, embodying the spirit of companionship and shared joy, even within an environment that suggests solitude or adversity. Their brightness feels almost defiant, a radiant counterpoint to the sinister darkness that looms behind them.
This juxtaposition forms the emotional heart of the painting, the idea that happiness, lightness, and friendship can endure and prevail, even when shadowed by life’s darker chapters. The darkness is not denied; rather, it serves as the necessary backdrop against which the flowers’ vitality can be seen and felt.
The blue glass vase, resembling an ink pot, introduces a subtle but profound metaphor. It becomes a vessel of potential, a reminder that life, like writing, allows for revision. Despite the challenges life pens, the body and spirit hold the power to rewrite the narrative, transforming hardship into meaning and renewal. The vase’s transparency and hue evoke both depth and fluidity, symbolising the emotional and creative currents that sustain us.
From within the vase, light radiates outward, its rays extending across the surface, like the tendrils of hope itself. This illumination does not merely dispel darkness; it acts in rebellion to it, casting its glow away from, and despite the surrounding void. The direction of the light, as much as its presence, suggests a conscious choice toward optimism and self-determination.
Finally, the varying states of the cosmos, some drooping, others upright, and a few still in bud serve as a poignant reflection of the diversity of human experience. Each flower’s posture tells a different story: fatigue, strength, anticipation. Together, they represent the unique journeys of every life, reminding the viewer that growth, decline, and becoming are all parts of the same continuum.
A Handful
A Handful celebrates nature’s immediacy. A small bouquet of chrysanthemums placed casually in a reused brown glass bottle. The handful of flowers, not perfectly arranged, seem freshly gathered, their soft petals glowing against a vivid lime green background. The reused vessel, humble and aged, speaks of endurance and quiet beauty earned through time and transformation.
Beneath the jar of flowers lies a beautiful piece of wood. It is unclear whether this form is a table or something more organic, yet its presence anchors the composition with warmth and solidity. This ambiguity, between human-made object and natural element becomes deeply symbolic: whatever strife or struggle comes our way, nature will always hold us. The wood’s grain and tone suggest continuity and grounding, a reminder that life’s foundations remain steady even as we weather change.
The title, A Handful, carries a gentle irony. It nods to life’s challenges, how existence itself can feel like “a handful” yet within this notion, Pannell finds radiance. The scene reminds us that even in imperfection there is grace, even in the everyday, there are glimmers of beauty waiting to be seen.