"I chose to take a closer look at Kelly Ratchford’s ‘Sunday Car’, which can be found in the storeroom at the Olivier Cornet Gallery. The piece was part of the two-person exhibition that happened in the summer of 2021 called ‘Less Jam, More Havoc’ - a sequel to the show ‘Jam Havoc’ held virtually between March and April of 2021. Ratchford’s work was exhibited alongside jewellery artist Jacki Coffey, displaying paintings that emulated works by children, a theme across the entire exhibition. For ‘Sunday Car’, Ratchford offers a simple line drawing with layers of emulsion, acrylic, and spray paint on wood panel. She asserts herself as a mark-maker and stays in line with Jacki’s upbeat work based on her daughter’s mischief at home. ‘Sunday Car’ encapsulates a rare instance of light-heartedness in Ratchford’s catalogue, and it is one to be admired.   

 The painting plays with simple geometric shapes, which form the outline of a car. The car starts on the edges of the board, and the loose line drawn at the bottom show us the size of the car. Two circles pierce through the bottom line, representing wheels. A strip of white acrylic paint lies underneath the car, providing us the impression of surface on which the car rests. Thus, we know that the object stands somewhere in space, and it could even be in motion. Further, the artist espouses her enthusiasm for experimentation in her use of mix-media to paint the gaps that compose the car. 

What excites me particularly is the carefreeness with which the materials are assembled on the board. The physical act of painting is the essence of this piece. The application of white paint that overflows the sloppily delineated windows does not follow a logical course. It is splashed and it intersperses itself with small drips of reddish emulsion. Further, black spray paint is spread across the board in varying textures. Ratchford is rendering a feeling that can only be conveyed by abstraction. We are witnessing an artist that is not afraid to delve into the realm of action painting to fully engage her artistic expression. The story of ‘Sunday Car’ lies on the choices Ratchford embraced on the physical plane - the action of her painting. 

Another admirable attribute of this work is its aesthetic continuity amongst other paintings featured in ‘Less Jam, More Havoc’. ‘Sunday Car’ thus exists as part of a larger visual narrative. While this painting shows Ratchford’s expertise in balancing mediums to produce dynamic effects, the same can be said about other pieces from this series, such as ‘Taxi’ – also available in the storeroom. Ratchford’s toy-like vehicles take you on a humorous journey and allude to a simpler time. This world of abstracted child innocence is more comfortable than our own, and I, for one, would like to stay in it."