Hump day horizontality… This docile painting features in This Side of Paradise, a new exhibition by British artist Jonathan Wateridge, at TJ Boulting until 14 November. The show takes its title from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920 novel of the same name, and just as the book tracks its protagonist’s fall from wealth, the paintings present “a fall from paradise” of their own. In each case, a swimming pool (the symbol of affluence) provides “the fulcrum around which [the piece] pivots”. Executed in soft-focus strokes, and cast in a darker light than most poolside scenes, this particular set-up feels almost Hitchcockian, imbued with a sense that at any moment this contented lounger may be disturbed.
