This week we highlight Grace Bailey’s “Now I See Through a Mirror Dimly” (oil and mixed media on canvas, 121 x 121 cm, $2,750). 

The painting is illustrative of the artist’s fascination with the eyes. Grace writes in her exhibition statement: “I am continually drawn back to painting people's eyes, enlarged with the detail that is rarely noticed. Eyes are so complex and beautiful and reflective. In my work I like to get up close and personal, inside my subject's skins, in order to invade their personal space to enlarge my understanding and the viewer's perceptions.”

This is the last week to catch Grace Bailey’s exceptional exhibition of recent paintings, ‘In the Eye of the Beholder’ – see http://www.quadrantgallery.com.au/grace-bailey.html for more details.

This week’s Work of the Week from Grace Bailey’s exhibition ‘In the Eye of the Beholder’ is ‘Hope and a Promise’ (no. 8, oil on canvas, 61 x 61 cm, $880).

The painting comes from a body of work inspired by the artist’s visits to and involvement with orphanages around the world and expresses her concern about the fate of the children in some of the world’s developing nations.

‘Hope and a Promise’ was inspired by a boy Grace had met in a Northern Thailand orphanage, where he has been since the age of three months. Grace hopes that children like these have a promise of good education and a future.

The exhibition is on view at the gallery until Saturday, 26 October.