Ducks in a Row

Scale is the joke here. A greylag goose stands taller than the children beside it, and a goldfinch to the right is roughly the size of a family car. The little girls in pink dresses raise their arms as if greeting the birds, or perhaps trying to shoo them, while the birds themselves pay no attention at all. That mismatch, painted without any explanation, is what gives the picture its odd charm. Nobody in the scene seems to find the situation strange.

Ella Williams works in a loose, painterly way that leaves the brushwork visible everywhere: the goose's body is built from smears of grey and brown, the goldfinch's wing from a few confident strokes of yellow and blue, and the horizon is little more than bands of pale green and cream. Faint pencil lines still show through in places, the sort of underdrawing most painters would cover up. The choice to leave them keeps the whole thing feeling unfinished in a deliberate way, more like a page from a sketchbook blown up to wall size.

The title plays on the phrase about getting your ducks in a row, meaning to organise things properly. These birds and children are anything but organised, scattered across a flat field with no clear direction or purpose. Contemporary figurative painting often works this way, borrowing the look of childhood illustration while withholding the tidy story that usually goes with it.