Decay (2024)

Decay continues my ongoing exploration of vanitas and impermanence, but in a quieter, more personal register. The work depicts a modest arrangement of dying flowers, melted candles, and scattered fragments — familiar objects arranged with ritual care. The composition embraces stillness, yet every surface seems touched by time: wax softened by heat, petals crisping at the edges, cloth folding under its own weight.

Unlike the overt symbolism of traditional vanitas painting, Decay locates its melancholy within domestic intimacy. The scene feels inhabited but recently left — a moment preserved after use, where presence remains through absence. Each object holds its own quiet dignity, illuminated by a gentle chiaroscuro that turns deterioration into something almost devotional.

This work reflects my fascination with the point at which beauty ceases to be ornamental and becomes emotional. Decay here is not loss but continuation, a process through which texture, shadow, and memory gather weight. The glow of the candles persists — a fragile resistance against inevitability.

Created digitally using layered oil simulation, Decay employs a muted palette of ochres, umbers, and soft greys, chosen to evoke the warmth of age and the patina of forgotten interiors. The lighting is staged to recall 17th-century still life compositions, with directional illumination revealing form through contrast. The brushwork alternates between precision and looseness: detailed rendering in the dried blossoms and diffused softness in the surrounding cloth, allowing the scene to hover between realism and reverie.