Title: Two Women, 1994
Artist: Richard Ayling
Medium: Oil on canvas, framed
Dimensions: 41.5 × 36.5 cm (framed)
Framing: Original painted timber frame, white
A tender, near-cubist vignette rendered in moody strokes and hushed tones, Two Women (1994) captures a fleeting interior — all suggestion and shadow. Ayling’s figures, abstracted to their essential forms, share the space with domestic objects: a tall jug, two glasses, a framed painting within the painting. Light enters from the side, casting long, deliberate shadows that anchor the composition in a specific hour — perhaps late afternoon.
Though modest in scale, the painting resonates with a sense of emotional and spatial ambiguity. There’s a privacy here, a quiet pause between gestures. Ayling’s brushwork is loose, almost hesitant, imbuing the scene with dreamlike immediacy — part memory, part observation.
Framed in a simple, sympathetic white surround, this work sits confidently alongside mid-century British modernism and post-war European figuration. An understated yet emotionally charged piece, ideal for collectors of narrative abstraction and evocative interiors.
