Hannah Brown, Gill in the Gardens

Professor Gillian Brown, one of the earliest female fellows of Clare College, the founding director of the Cambridge University Centre for English and Applied Linguistics, and the artist's Grandmother portrayed in oil, standing in a garden surrounded by cartoonish flowers in paint pen with an acrylic and oil background of hedges and trees.

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Judy Wu, View of Lüderitz, Namibia

This is a painting of Lüderitz, Namibia at sunset in June. I drew the view outside my accommodation where I was staying for my gap year internship at a local school. I wanted to capture the peaceful ocean view.

Acrylic on canvas

Claire Parker, Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Beheading Holofernes

While studying French at Clare I learnt about the seventeenth-century hierarchy of genres in painting: allegorical, historical or religious subjects were at the top of the pack, landscapes were in the middle, and still lifes were firmly at the bottom. Here, I’ve reshuffled that deck, turning that hierarchy on its head and releasing the humble toothbrush from the bathroom into the pantheon of great works of art. 

The biblical figures in Gentileschi’s Judith Beheading Holofernes have been replaced by toothbrushes de-capping a toothpaste tube with dental floss. 

Acrylic on paper

Claire Parker, Nicolas Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time

In Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time, muses are replaced by tubes, while a character in the corner holds an hourglass I like to imagine as a two-minute tooth-brushing timer.  

Acrylic on paper

Bill Harris, Snails in the evening

Dreamlike evocation of garden snails.

Acrylic on canvas

Qi Guo, Auspicious Veggies

Auspicious Veggies transforms humble market vegetables into a tapestry of traditional symbols: cabbages for wealth, carrots for good fortune, aubergines for honour, and mushrooms for longevity. 

Watercolour

Qi Guo, Comfort in a bowl

Comfort in a Bowl offers a personal portrait of self-care after a cold day: steaming noodles, a poached egg, and salted eggs arranged on the side. 

Watercolour

Qi Guo, Saturday's Steamed Blessings

Bao Bun preserves a fragrant family memory: steamed buns waiting on a plate, painted before they were shared and eaten. 

Watercolour

Bill Harris, Sad frog in a cow's eye

A pure abstract with a biological/histological cellular feel.

Acrylic on canvas