Still Life Paintings Depict the Quiet Beauty of the World Enjoyed Offline

Artist Hilary Pecis depicts the present in still life paint­ings. Through care­ful­ly craft­ed arrange­ments, she seem­ing­ly illu­mi­nates what’s right in front of her. A stack of books, a selec­tion of condi­ments, and bou­quets of flow­ers are all sub­jects in her work. The New York­er described her paint­ings as “recall­ing paint-by-num­bers” which is apt. Not only do they have this appear­ance, but they feel nos­tal­gic as if they are illus­trat­ing a time when life felt sim­pler and more assured. In that way, they are com­fort­ing, which is only fur­thered with Hilary’s visu­al style. She works in an often-warm, desat­u­rat­ed palette that tends to flat­ten her com­po­si­tions. Her large, bold shapes that are defined by metic­u­lous brush strokes of small details like a reflec­tion on a wine glass.

Fol­low Hilary on Insta­gram for her work in progress.