Art on a Postcard x War Child UK 2024 Part I

About

Painting from life, imagination and memory, I am preoccupied with the exquisite wonders of nature and the human form. Influenced by my lifelong studies of yogic teachings and spiritual thought I search to crystallise on canvas the unselfconscious present state of being of the sitter and the aliveness of the natural world around me; a sense of mortality clashes with vivid embodiment. My work is delivered with potent emotion and is often autobiographical, reflecting my state of mind. Colour is both the subject and the form in my paintings. Understanding colour is fundamental to my creative process. Drawing inspiration from the shallow planes of modernism, I build form through geometric shapes, clear facets and defined edges. This ravenous enquiry results in paintings that are exuberant and deeply expressive. Drawing is an important part of my process. I am constantly sketching, seeking to capture not only a moment in time or the essence of a subject but also the circulating air and the perception of space. I draw in order to better understand the world; the unfolding can be extremely cathartic

Education

The Royal Drawing School and Heatherley School of Fine Art

Select Exhibitions/Awards

Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize 2023 and 2017

Jackson's PaintingPrize 2023 Longlisted

Diana Armfield RA Drawing Prize 2022 and 2020 Highly Commended

Wedlake Bell Prize 2021 Shortlisted

New English Art Club Scholarship 2019-2021

Member of Chelsea Art Society, elected 2021

The Moth Art Prize 2020 Highly Commended

Jackson's Painting Prize 2018 Finalist

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork:
These four paintings mix figuration with abstraction, one feeding into and responding with the other. They are concerned with the subtle wonders of the human form, exploring both presence and absence in space, and the importance of human relationships to our own sanity.  I am interested in the rhythm and musicality of spaces between the forms and how the figures intertwine and link together. Unceasingly concerned with colours and their relationships, I investigate what happens when two colours meet, how they dance side by side and what occurs at the borderline; each hue sings and resonates with its neighbour, creating a rhythm within the composition and eliciting a different emotional response.

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