SILK PORTRAITS
2015 series
SILK PORTRAITS 2015
Luminous dye, fleeting presence
Bettina Newbery’s 2015 silk portraits extend the dialogue begun with her 1980s oils, yet speak in a lighter register. Where oils invite slow layering, these works capture the first, irrevocable breath of luminous dye on taut silk.
Expressive faces emerge through drifting washes of rose, ochre and violet that coalesce only where light naturally strikes - temples, nose - bridge while dark, liquid eyes anchor the gaze. A single decisive stroke often defines the hair, its depth reverberating against the fabric’s pale shimmer.
Framed in contemporary aluminium and ready to hang, the series completes a triptych of approaches to human presence: abstracts imply identity through colour and gesture, oils crystallise it in tangible form, and these silks hold it suspended - embodied yet ethereal: a weightless window into the quiet volatility of colour on silk.
