Sardines  – Simple life

Sardines – Simple life, by Virginie Martin-Blaise

This small-scale oil painting captures sardines resting side by side, reduced to their essential presence. Stripped of any narrative excess, the composition focuses on texture, subtle reflections, and the quiet beauty of an everyday subject. The restrained background allows the silvery blues, greens, and muted iridescence of the fish to emerge with clarity and precision.

Part of the Simple life series, this work explores humble food subjects as contemporary still lifes. The sardines are treated not as objects of consumption but as forms, light carriers, and surfaces marked by time and fragility. The brushwork remains visible and expressive, reinforcing a sense of immediacy and direct observation.

Through its modest format and minimal staging, Sardines – Simple life invites a slow and attentive gaze. The painting celebrates simplicity, balance, and the quiet poetry of ordinary things, aligning with a long tradition of still life while asserting a distinctly contemporary sensibility.