Practice makes perfect — Birmingham-based studio An Endless Supply put a new spin on a genre classic. The Lazy Susan Painting Club is a semi-regular still life painting event hosted by An Endless Supply. The club was originally set up as an informal social situation for members to spend time together in focused silence with no expectation of skill or outcome. It has since grown into a still life painting advocacy group trying to rebalance the genre's position on the hierarchical ladder of subjects (as far as we are concerned the ladder currently looks like this, from the top rung down: history painting, portraiture, landscape, animal and lastly still life).
By setting the still life on a rotating platform — the perspective changing at five minute intervals — the club aims to disable ideas of composition as new configurations must be accommodated within old ones.
So far the club has run at Camberwell College of Art, Ceri Hand Gallery, New Art Gallery Walsall and the Coniston Institute.
Here we present five views of an arrangement made of five pieces of subject matter found in the studio.
Objects:
Tangerines: Vibrant colours, spherical and waxy: a test in managing texture.
Plastic pineapple: Popular with buyers and commonplace in regional studios.
Beer bottle: A classic of the genre and full of allegorical meaning
Ear defenders: We love their economic design and they provide a useful perspective challenge.
Potted plant: The gradient of the leaves requires a deft hand at mixing.