The Top 100 - Timed Auction

“These paintings were the result of a trip to Costco near where I live in West London. As I was driving passed, the sun was hitting the building so I pulled over. These works are as much a record of my own experience of that place, on that day, as they are of the strangers portrayed within the painting.” - Christabel Blackburn, 2021

Christabel Blackburn is an artist living and practising in London. Christabel’s strong sense of observation enables her to capture people with minimal information. This pared down detail can be seen in both her figures and their environment, the symbiosis between the two becoming a central theme.  Be it a lone figure in a gallery or a woman passing by a sunlit Brutalist building, the stillness she portrays in her everyday scenes draws the viewer in and invites them to exchange places with the subject. The intimacy she creates pulls you closer, giving you a greater sense of the people in the picture, their thoughts and their feelings. The simplicity of her work conveys the anonymity and calm felt in a crowded city. Her scenes transcend the everyday; they are stories about identity and how we live our lives.

Christabel won Sky Arts, Portrait Artist of the Year 2020. She is currently preparing for a large scale solo exhibition in London later this year. 

www.christabelblackburn.com
@christabelblackburn