Danielle Orchard

Painter Danielle Orchard’s subjects are contemplative women, quiet in their thoughts, frequently depicted in the privacy of their personal space, in their bedrooms, their baths. Orchard’s women are reminiscent of Picasso’s early Cubist practice in the angularity of their forms. However, her paintings depart from Picasso’s influence as they are devoid of the male gaze. Orchard captures her subjects as they go about their days, depicting simple moments in the reality of their existence. In her exploration and consideration of art history, she skews the canon through her personal context as a “woman painter living in New York”. Orchard imbues her paintings with a timeless quality, making the decision to depict her women in the nude. However, items that are undeniably 21st century creep into her tableaux, disrupting our sense of being outside of time. Her paintings are cinematic, rich environments that we can indulge ourselves in, as we delve into the worlds of her subjects, finding ourselves drawn into their private oases.