Pilar Basa - Abundance in a Vase No. 1

Artwork Description:

This illustration explores the tension and harmony between stillness and vitality. Using gouache and pigment marker on paper, I aimed to create a piece that invites quiet observation, while drawing attention to the abundance of life contained within a seemingly simple vase. Though the composition draws on the tradition of still life, the subject is anything but still — it’s a meditation on nature’s persistence, movement, and quiet power.

I’ve always found it curious that traditional still life, so often filled with natural objects, feels devoid of actual life. It has often struck me as an assertion of human dominance — a way of capturing, controlling, and ultimately silencing nature. In this piece, I wanted to flip that script and create a still life that is teeming with life, where the natural world is not subdued, but vibrant and active.

The act of arranging flowers in a vase represents more than aesthetics — it’s a reflection of our desire to sculpt nature to our will, as if we know better. From manicured gardens to neatly mowed lawns, we impose order on organic growth, mistaking control for harmony. This work invites viewers to question that hubris, and to reflect on the illusion of control we maintain over the natural world.

I intentionally chose familiar, non-confrontational materials and techniques to draw attention to the subject itself: the complex, often fraught relationship between humans and nature. Much of my work removes traditional context, leaving negative space as a way to create breathing room for contemplation. I explore human narratives without depicting people directly — instead using natural forms and quiet arrangements to speak about our place in the world, and the subtle stories we leave behind.

Artist Statement:

My practice is rooted in illustration, most often using gouache, watercolour, and pigment markers on paper. I love to explore themes of nature and human connection—our relationships with ourselves, with one another, and with natural and constructed worlds. My practice is a space where I can pause and explore the patterns that sit beneath our everyday thoughts and behaviours.

What began as a way to observe nature and its emotional impact has evolved into a deeper investigation of the stories we are a part of and those we leave behind. I’m passionately interested in how we connect to the natural world, and what that relationship reveals about who we are. I am also drawn to still life methods of story telling - its cultural and personal symbolism provide an opportunity for understanding, whilst its compositional mode is an intriguing exercise of control and connection. In future work, I hope to expand into larger, more intricate compositions that allow me to explore these ideas further—using stillness and the juxtaposition between nature and human-made as a way to ask questions about identity, beliefs, and the frameworks through which I see and am seen.

Raised between cultures, I’ve always carried the feeling of living in-between. Art became a safe place to slow down and explore. Without realising it at first, I now find that my practice mirrors forms of meditation—an attention to small things, to silence, to reducing the noise of the world around. As a child, when the world felt too loud, I would crouch in the garden and watch beetles and bugs for hours. That instinct—to go small when the world feels too big—still guides my work. I hope my drawings offer that same quiet space to others: a moment to soften, to observe, and to sit gently with thoughts.