Nature Table Series

Nature Tables is a new series of paintings that evoke childhood memories of infant school natural history projects, toys, suburban domestic interiors and an early formed concern about our relationship with nature and the need to control it.

This starting point of remembered touchstones has deepened and broadened to observe and critique consumer aspirations which are removing us further from the natural world and are often in conflict with the wellbeing of the planet.

In revisiting the childhood habit of collecting and arranging found objects and toys, Dilnot carefully arranges his still lives and the formal qualities of these to seek a distillation of memory, thought and feeling.

The sense of order and calm which is created allows the viewer to safely view the fragility of existence and the melancholy caused by the loss of the natural world we are witnessing in our life time. It also allows us to observe the subtle details as we scan the images, such as the tiny tip of green shoots growing from a dying house plant which tells of a yearning for hope and a future.

Here is a small selection of recent work. More can be seen on my instagram account.