Oil Paintings
Kretchmer’s paintings are rooted in a love of history, nature, magic and colour. Realistic figures are blended into abstract settings, free from spatial limitations, lending the paintings an atmosphere of uncertainty and possibility. Figures may or may not have complete bodies, and often float in ambiguous space. Abstraction intermingles with representation, and the laws of physics are stretched.
Inspired by the world around her, she brings her impressions to life on canvas – the demigods of parties long past, fairytales that never were, and histories that took place in an alternate dimension.
In noticing the magic quietly embedded within the ordinary, Kretchmer endeavours to tease it out and highlight it so that others can see the magic lurking in their own lives, just under the surface. This remains the fundamental premise of her work as she continues to explore these themes.
Kretchmer’s process is Jungian in nature. She often receives the idea for a painting in a flash of inspiration and then commits it to paper as a sketch. Through the painting process, necessary symbolic elements often surface, which are then further explored and expressed in the application of the paint.
Through her work, Kretchmer aims to awaken in others a sense of magic and whimsy, and invites viewers to engage with these alternate worlds, histories, fairytales and spells, and momentarily step outside of the mundane, into the metaphysical.
