Gabriella Boyd’s paintings capture fleeting moments of intimacy

London-based artist Gabriella Boyd mainly works with oil paints on canvas and often creates imagined locations using only colour and line as her guidance. Working from photographs, drawings and recalled memories and observations, Gabriella depicts “fleeting interactions or moments of failed intimacy”.

We last featured Gabriella for her illustrations that were published in a new edition of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and in these more recent paintings her soothing colour palette allows her to convey complex narratives.

Throughout her work, we only get glimpses of her lithe figures, as their backs are turned or faces obscured, adding more mystery. A mix of busy and quieter scenes, Gabriella’s paintings are at their best when they include subtle details like a woman wearing a banana print shirt, and the weave of a black wicker chair.