‘I am emotional. I am sensitive. I take things too personally. I always feel guilty.I feel like I am living between worlds. Reality, fantasy and my own reality. And time is ticking on in the background. Still life resonates with me because it’s on the clock too. Flowers and fruit can be arranged and painted to live forever but they will die and rot. This comforts me. I don't want anything to be too perfect or too alive because that’s not realistic.’

Erin Chaplin’s work is a deeply personal and reflective. She draws her initial inspiration from her longstanding muse, nature, but reaches further – in reaction to social doctrine and in an exploration of human vulnerability – and into abstraction. Her range of subject matter – from still lifes and portraits to geometric abstraction –  is a reflection of her insatiable fascination with every facet of life.

Chaplin studies the relationship between the natural and the artificial in her work, striving to capture the poignancy of youth as it fades – fresh fruit and flowers as they slowly rot. In response to the challenging nature of the genre, the still-life works are executed in a combination of muted tones and unexpected, contrived colours. The contrast of these tones creates a dynamism in the work that entices and surprises the viewer. In her impasto paintings, a metaphor grows to encapsulate the delicate rawness and vulnerability of the human condition as we grapple with life as it unfolds.

Chaplin was born in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, in 1988. She is a self-taught artist. She has exhibited both locally and internationally. In 2022 she attended a residency in Sintra, Portugal. She currently lives in Cape Town.