Pranzo di Mare is both a visual feast and a quiet meditation on colour, simplicity and celebration. The series of 17 acrylic paintings by Fitzroy artist Sammy Veall are an orchestration of beauty cultivated through a life intentionally lived. Each artwork reflects the artist’s capacity to not only capture a world of possibility, but to create one. Set within her own home - the home she designed - Veall conceived a gathering inspired by a Mediterranean seafood feast, with each plate, menu item and décor thoughtfully selected as an expression of a worldview shaped by authenticity.

Colour is mixed and applied astutely; Sammy’s brushstrokes are demonstrative of an artist unbound and intuitive. The resulting still life’s sit somewhere between a quiet moment of solitude and a memory of shared pleasure. Pranzo di Mare is a compilation of food and interior paintings that demonstrate the artist’s embodied approach, where her state of flow carries us deep into the warm troves of nostalgia - to sun-drenched tables, lingering meals and the sensory rituals of gathering. White walls come alive through varying tones, voids transport us to faraway places, and meals long since consumed are revived through the layering of paint. 

At the heart of Sammy’s talent is an ability to capture more than a moment, but a feeling - a sense of place and possibility. And like every good party, each work in Pranzo di Mare awakens a sense of conviviality, while realising a yearning for fleeting moments to become steadfast.