Still Life Paintings

The still life is one of painting's oldest and most demanding traditions — a genre that asks the artist to transform everyday objects into experiences of pure visual pleasure. Sally Nooney has practiced this tradition for decades, bringing to it the same loose, observational approach that characterizes all her work.

The Art of Seeing

A still life begins with selection: which objects, which arrangement, which light. For Sally, this curatorial act is as much a part of the painting as the brushwork itself. She is drawn to objects that carry warmth — fruit at the peak of ripeness, flowers just before they turn, glass catching and refracting light, pottery whose surfaces hold memory.

Signature Still Life Works

• Candlelight Repast — Wine, candles, and the remnants of a meal, painted with the warm intimacy of a Dutch genre painting
• Attic Window — Objects discovered in an attic, arranged against the light of a small window, combining still life with a sense of story and nostalgia
• Peaches & Cream — Ripe summer peaches in a cream-colored bowl, painted with sensuous attention to surface and light
• Blue Pottery Grapefruit — Bold blue ceramic ware with the acid-bright yellow-pink of grapefruit, a study in color contrast
• Pumpkins — Autumn gourds in various colors and sizes, a seasonal celebration in warm earth tones
• Stargazers & Oranges — Stargazer lilies with vivid oranges, capturing the heady richness of high summer
• Watercolor Fruit — A loose, luminous watercolor study demonstrating transparency and freshness

Working with Glass

In 2012, Sally added kiln-formed fused glass to her practice, and this new medium has influenced her still life paintings as well. Her sensitivity to the way light moves through transparent materials — glass vessels, crystal, even the skin of certain fruits — became more refined through her glass work.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Paintings collection offers extensive resources on the still life tradition, tracing the genre from Flemish masters through the Impressionists and beyond. Sally's work participates in this long conversation with a distinctly personal voice.

Commissions

Still life commissions are warmly welcomed. Whether you wish to memorialize particular objects with personal meaning — wedding gifts, inherited heirlooms, beloved collections — or simply want a painting that captures a color and mood, Sally is skilled at incorporating specific elements into a composition that feels genuinely hers.