Lauren Ratcliffe

Originally from the Eastern Cape, she now works full time from her studio at Sidetrack Studios in Cape Town. Working across oil, acrylic, ink and mixed media, Lauren is drawn to interiors, chairs, vessels and everyday objects as carriers of presence, memory and human connection. Her paintings are less concerned with faithfully describing these objects than with capturing what seems to linger around them: the trace of a person, the familiarity of home, a remembered moment, or the quiet feeling held within a room. Her practice has become increasingly loose and intuitive, combining bold colour, layered surfaces, expressive marks and areas that blur, disappear or remain unresolved. She is interested in the tension between recognition and abstraction, allowing just enough information for an image to emerge while leaving space for the viewer’s own memories and associations. Building on 15 years of experience in psychology, leadership and people development, Lauren brings a longstanding curiosity about people and connection into her work. She is fascinated by the way ordinary objects can become silent witnesses to our lives and how the spaces we inhabit quietly absorb our stories. At the heart of Lauren’s practice is an interest in the life between things: the invisible relationships between people, objects and spaces, and the small, often overlooked moments that make a place feel like home. Warm, playful and sometimes quietly nostalgic, her work invites us to slow down, look again and find meaning in the ordinary.