STEWART LEES | Marinara
Oil on Gesso Panel
60cm x 80cm / 23½ inches x 31½ inches
Signed Stewart Lees (lower right)
Stewart Lees’ Marinara exemplifies contemporary still life painting rooted in classical realism. With meticulous detail and compositional balance, Lees arranges herbs, tomatoes, garlic, and oil in a tableau evoking rustic Mediterranean cuisine. The subtle modulation of light and texture recalls Dutch Golden Age influences, while the subject matter offers a sensory meditation on culinary tradition, domestic ritual, and painterly virtuosity.
Like the dish from which it takes its name, Marinara is built from layers of flavour, each element thoughtfully chosen, balanced and composed. Stewart begins not with a rigid plan, but with an ingredient: a ripe tomato, a sprig of rosemary, a cracked earthenware bowl. From there, the arrangement grows, guided by instinct and memory, until a still life emerges that is both deliberate and deeply personal.
Stewart’s work is rooted in observation, but never confined by it. In Marinara, the warmth of the Mediterranean palette evokes sun-soaked kitchens and weathered wood table tops. There is a tactile richness to each brushstroke, the glossy skin of a tomato, the powdery softness of flour, the cool gleam of ceramic, all painted with fidelity to texture and tone. As in the best cooking, restraint is as important as richness; Stewart allows space and light to flavour the scene as much as any object.
