CATHERINE BANNEY | STORIES WITHOUT WORDS | FEBRUARY 2024

OPENS SATURDAY 10, FEBRUARY 3-5PM | CONTINUES 27, FEBRUARY.

There’s no doubt that pictures are powerful.  They crystallise our memories; depict thoughts, fears, and desires; stir imagination; and evoke emotions.  In the book, The
Neverending Story, there’s a chapter where the protagonist has lost all his memories and no longer knows who he is.  His last hope of recovering his identity is to go down into the picture mines in the magical land of Fantastica and keep unearthing pictures until he finds one that feels like a link to his past.  Eventually he finds one, just one, that touches his heart and helps him find his way home.  It’s this power to penetrate deep into our minds, beyond our day-to-day thoughts, that brings us back again and again to certain images.  We see lines and colours with our eyes, but our minds add layers of meaning, perhaps that the creator of the image never envisaged.  Why a particular picture resonates with a particular person might be obvious, or far from it.  Our relationship with an image is as unique as our own thoughts and experiences.
‘Stories without words’ is an exhibition of paintings that each tell part of a story.  What the story is about, and how it begins and ends, is very much up to the viewer to determine! No two people will have the same response to the paintings, nor will the images inspire the exact same story in any two people. So, let your imaginations roam free and have some fun exploring ‘stories without words’. - Catherine Banney

Please click on individual images to see catalogue details and enlarged photo with zoom.