Karren Urben is an artist based in Ferring, West Sussex.
This is one of her paintings, most recently displayed at Colonnade House in Worthing. Oil on canvas, it measures perhaps 60cm x 60cm.
What do we make of this artwork?
How do the other images we have considered help us engage with this charming piece?
Well, it isn't slick or polished.
It's not one of those images which look as though they have been laboriously copied from a photograph. It doesn't seem to have been achieved by carefully laying grid-lines over an original. It has a freshness, a vibrancy, an immediacy about it. In many ways it looks like a preliminary sketch.The background and flooring seem to have been hurriedly filled in. The child's lower limbs and dress are almost suggested, rather than defined. And yet we see the artist's signature and date in the corner. She considers it finished and complete. It seems to reflect a fleeting moment's observation, not a long-considered study.
More of that later.
But for all its hasty appearance, this painting has lovely elements of observation. Take a look at the child's left hand. There is something immediately authentic about the way this is presented to us. We have seen those open-handed gestures from children, both grasping and releasing at the same time. And what of the child's head and face? This is not a portrait, but it most certainly is of someone. I imagine that people who know this child, will instantly recognise her/him in this image.
Now at this point we need to say something about women painters and paintings of children. I can remember being taught in distant 1960s that artists such as Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt painted children because of their maternal leanings. Art historians, social scientists and critics were barely on the cusp of understanding that perceptions are socially conditioned. Later writers have pointed out that the social spheres of artists like Cassatt and Morisot were confined to the domestic by dominant ideas about women's place. Hopefully, we have moved beyond saying that women are 'naturally' drawn towards painting children. That does not, though, take away the possibility of an affection by the artist (of whichever gender) for the subject.
In conversation, Karren readily tells you that this is in fact her granddaughter.
Now that we know that, did we feel we should have known it before? Can we now discern signs of affection in the painting? Perhaps we can, but I think it would be impossible to say exactly what they are. We have spent much of our time with previous artworks considering what we, the viewer, bring to a work. It's worth remembering that the artist brings a lot too.
What I think we can see here though is the experience of being with a child we care about - and who will not stay this way forever. Perhaps this is why the artist has used seemingly hasty brushstrokes; perhaps this is why detail is often surrendered to impression. This moment is fleeting and will not come again. Perhaps grandparents know this in a way which parents don't fully appreciate yet.
It reminds us of an observation we have made before, that the artist does not seek to convey what the subject looks like; the artist show us what it is like to be in the presence of the subject.
You can see more of Karren Urben's work online.