“Alice's catalogue in her 2010 exhibition had the title 'Colour Blast'. Today that becomes even more apt as her pictures become more confrontational, the design more simple.

In 'The Small Card Table' the red of the cloth dominates, then gets picked up by the red of the flowers leading to the darkish green trees on the right through the window. They set up a dance which spreads into the whole picture. There is a freedom of touch which evokes a sense of a particular place in a certain light.

Sometimes she moves more closely to the objects on the table.  They become more palpable, the colour more resonant.  It’s as if she’d plunged into the space and revelled in it.

The influence of Bonnard comes to mind.  Whereas he did not paint from nature but from drawings, Alice paints directly on the spot, her subject matter mainly confined to still-life found in the rooms in her house.  A process is started which can become quite a battle.  Though grateful for the discipline of drawing she gained at Camberwell, she now feels a sense of freedom that she can paint the objects around her,  very aware of the light that transforms and the colour that excites her.

These are joyous pictures that express a vision that makes the commonplace a thing of beauty.”

— Anthony Eyton RA

“Sometimes when the sun is at a certain angle or there are particular clouds the sea acts like a giant silver platter up-lighting the coastal area where we live in Cornwall. This light effect has a sort of liquid feel reminding me of silver when it has been melted. Anne Redpath painted some wonderful pictures using different greys, some warm, some cool but they always have a vitality unexpected with greys. Maybe is the stronger colours which she has under-painted with.

My mother, also a painter, suggested to me when I was quite young that Bonnard made silver shadows and that that is what you see when in the South of France. I’m not sure I understood but it has intrigued me ever since. Maybe it’s the way Bonnard places splodges of a lighter tone on top of a darker area, then another splodge of darker tone on top of that, which gives a shimmer to the shadows.

Perhaps up-lighting intensifies the colours in shadows whether in sunshine in the bay of Nice where Bonnard lived and worked, or on a grey day in Cornwall by the coast, and this is what appeals. Winifred Nicholson writes so well about how light and colours bounce around. “Thus all the most brilliant things of nature are composed of tiny facets or mirrors which reflect – and reflect each other: kingfisher’s breast, jay’s feather, butterfly’s wing, fish’s scales, flower petals in all their transparency. Each may appear one hue, but in reality under the microscope are made up of many varied hues in true harmony, heightening each other’s true brilliance.””

— Alice Mumford