Jessica Holmes Paints Forbidden Family Heirlooms in Night on Bald Mountain Series

Jessica Holmes's latest series, Night on Bald Mountain, transforms forbidden childhood objects into luminous still lifes. The London-based artist paints heirlooms—1950s Nagasaki pepper pots, 19th-century French clocks—that she was never allowed to touch as a child. Her father grew up in the Staffordshire Potteries, and her mother traveled extensively in East Asia, especially Japan, shaping the collection. Holmes cites Dutch Vanitas painting, particularly Rachel Ruysch and Jan Davidsz. de Heem, as a key reference, but her works pulse with regeneration rather than mortality. The paintings nod to Cabinets of Curiosities and Wunderkammern, resisting fixed categories. Titles like The Voices of Spring and Tallis Fantasia evoke music and theatrical drama. Holmes notes that ceramic motifs are borrowed from mass-produced domestic objects worldwide. The series includes works such as The Bells of Moscow, The Augurs of Spring, Swan Theme, and For the New World. Holmes describes the series as her most personal to date, stating that not being able to touch the objects gave her an intensity of looking. The paintings affirm continuity—a memento vivere rather than memento mori.