Estelle Thompson has maintained her eloquent and rigorous examination of the potential of painting as a central tenet of her practice over the past forty years. This unwavering commitment lies in her belief in the power of painting to transform the world through a search for a contemporary beauty, a truth that paint might offer in establishing order out of chaos. 

Thompson’s work references the history of painting from the Renaissance through to Modernism and Abstraction. It is underpinned by her reading of German 18th Century aesthetics, in tandem with Metaphysics and considerations of the philosophy of beauty now. 

Throughout she has focused on the fundamental dualities in painting: considered structure and an open approach to free-play; the sublime and the concrete; nature with a non-referential abstraction.  This delicate balancing act has resulted in a coherent and remarkably disparate body of work where the viewer is continually given a complete physical presence to contemplate. 

Thompson’s ability to establish and manipulate exact colour to create formal and spatial relationships remains a critical force in her work. Combining this with her playful approach to the act of painting itself, she continues to challenge and surprise.