Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts is reviewed by Observer

'Paul has been living and painting in the same flat for the last 43 years, painting the same chair and bed, the same window, painting in paint-coated smocks, on the same wooden, paint-flecked floorboards. She paints what she knows: herself, her mother and sisters, the tree and buildings out her window. None of her human subjects are smiling. It is not as if they are sad or angry, but rather a reflection of the artist’s state of mind in the act of painting them. She is deeply focused, delving inward as if mining the soul. This cannot be easy, finding such an elusive essence; yet somehow, in all her paintings, even the chair and the bed, there is this ephemeral, hovering essence.'

Read more

Image: Celia Paul, My Sisters in Mourning, 2015–2016
Oil on canvas

March 31 2025