New Work

Environmental messages and social commentary are presented through the whimsical yet confronting tableaux of Candi Dentice. Exquisitely rendered landscapes form a backdrop for the surreal and symbolic subjects of her paintings, which deal with the costs of economic expansion and consumerism.

Dentice’s painting technique is highly refined, honed through formal education and extensive experience. She expertly produces the idealised lighting and conditions of her fantasy landscapes, skilfully evoking the beauty of natural settings. The level of detail is exceptional, the result of Dentice’s on-going and in-depth observation of nature.

Each painting is produced after extensive research and preparation in the form of photographs, preparatory drawings and painted sketches. Dentice carefully considers and maps each individual detail, from the species of tree through to the grain patterns of various types of wood. This extensive research provides a foundation for her images, allowing her to fully express the complexity and fragility of these environments. Though her works are set in a surreal context, Dentice is careful to ensure that the conditions are consistent within each created world, paying great attention to light and atmospheric effects.

This fixation on minute detail extends to the colour of the paintings, which Dentice renders in rich tones that subtly shift across the picture plane. The layering of semi-transparent glazes creates a striking luminosity reminiscent of Romantic landscapes; Dentice’s paintings, however, in the context of the post-industrial world, depict nature as diminutive and degraded, rather than sublime.