Symphony of Light

Reverent present. A catalogue essay
By Sarah Jones 2026

Julie Davidson’s works are beautiful; as studies of form, of light and shadow, as harmonious compositions, as mimetic tributes to those aesthetic symphonies in nature that are ubiquitous and fleeting. The first flush of a flower’s bloom is always a surprise and always a delight, and this sensation does not depreciate with age or familiarity. An encounter with beauty arrests us—brings us immediately to the present—as a sudden intake of breath.

It is this unique sensibility to the finest slice of the present that is the lure of Davidson’s paintings. Time is rendered so finely that it feels both infinite and instantaneous. It is as if that very moment—when the light falls silver across the glazed surface—could be opened. And when transformed, becoming a where, inviting you to step into that space of stillness.  

This stillness is the interior time of the mother, the daughter, the loved and the caring. Davidson’s still lives are painted around a life full of movement, full of loved ones, full of loss and joy. To dedicate a life to making these paintings is to find time. Not to steal or to borrow, not even to bargain, but to genuinely find it — in a fold of fabric, in a reflection in a vase, in the drop of a petal. We know in our technologically mediated world that one’s own time has become the greatest of luxuries. Davidson’s works are luxurious then, as we ourselves make time to pause within them.

Perhaps it is the fullness of life lived around painting that prompts Davidson to describe the vessels chosen for inclusion in her works as somewhat mundane. The description feels odd until one realises that what the artist implies here is an ease of access, as opposed to lack of value or an inherent dullness. The bowls and vases chosen for the works in this exhibition range from small dishes collected on overseas travels to treasures from her sister’s collection of ceramics, which includes works by revered local ceramicists Arneaud Barraud and Jack Balfour.  Davidson chooses these vessels for their inherent simplicity; consistent lines, curves and colours balance these delicate forms.

Ikebana (the way of flowers) learns from the natural world a harmony that attempts to suggest dynamism through asymmetry and negative space. The magnolia tree does not give us a tight bouquet, perfect symmetry or a litany of colour. It opens widely to the sky tempting a lilting gaze that wanders along a bare stem, over kinks and curves, toward a single bloom, petals down, in the silvery road of light along which the eye can continue.

Davidson’s proficiency as a painter who has studied the works of the greatest in the European tradition, from Caravaggio to Lorrain, is undeniable. Her exquisite images are the cumulative study of over 30 years of mastery in oil painting and this, her latest exhibition, Symphonies of Light offers deep insight into the infinite possibility of finding both beauty and time in the everyday.