Claire Kincade invites us to share in the experience of the objects she surrounds herself with and that she arranges in her still life paintings.

Light pours through living room windows, emphasizing the form of objects while they express themselves more quietly in the subdued light of a basement. The arrangement of objects in unexpected locations and lighting conditions causes the viewer not only to appreciate the whole but to slowly contemplate them as individual objects and how they relate to the space they occupy.

Kincade says, “The objects I paint do not have personal significance except that I have reused them in compositions many times. I know these items well, but the painting is never about the individual pieces. My observation and time spent with the space becomes the primary subject of the paintings. When I place them in a new situation, I perceive them differently than before. Then when a new object is added, it rearranges the dialogue within the space.”

The settings themselves contribute to the composition. In Columns, the positive and negative spaces of a wall heat register are echoed in the black and white label of a wine bottle. The shadows of columnar bottles transmogrify into undulating shadows cast on a baseboard.

She explains, “Any meaning to the final piece is generated by the process of painting and sharing it with others. As a viewer, I observe the space, interpret it in paint, then share it with another person. The painting’s audience then adds their own perspective to it.”

Good Afternoon seems to invite the audience into the space, to sit on the floor and to rearrange the pieces, observing the changes in the space and the experience of it.

Although each painting is an experience, the opportunity to experience the individual pieces in different situations is offered in her exhibition of new work at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia from June 2 through 26.