Melissa Neil isn’t afraid of the dark. For her latest exhibition of paintings, she was drawn to the night.

Neil works in a wonderfully simplified style, a lifelike one that borders on the abstract. Lifelike, because she paints landscapes inspired by specific places, and almost abstract, because she reduces the land to ambiguous shapes and bursts of colours. She also simplifies her compositions by painting nocturnal scenes. Darkness has a way of hiding details that would otherwise contribute to a more lifelike view.