Keeling’s beguiling, realist paintings capture suspended moments in fictional lives with a reverence for drama, suspense and elegance. Like film stills from an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Keeling’s isolated female figures are placed in a series of interiors where the space is either suffused with subtle, refracted light or illuminated by the harsh glare of an electric bulb. A film noir ambience is achieved with chiaroscuro effects and deep shadows which suggest an emotional and psychological undercurrent to the work. Yet the viewer is left to create their own narrative.

Elements of mystery and suspense are contrasted with moments of intense personal rest and reflection, where the viewer is obliged to acknowledge their own voyeuristic intrusion. In Drifting (2006), the viewer inadvertently intrudes upon the languid, naked form of a young woman, reclining in the bath, lost in her own reverie.  “These luminous paintings of domestic interiors are so tantalisingly realistic you’ll feel compelled to apologise for the intrusion”.*

- Elizabeth Hastings, Liverpoool Street Gallery

* Dominique Angeloro, ‘Critic’s Picks’, Metro, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 2004

Image: Beware My Lovely (Detail) 2009 oil on linen 102 x 153cm