blog

Beneath

05/04/2018
Solo Show at The Peacock Gallery of abstract paintings, inspired by an emotional response to land and water
On 21 April 2018 I will be holding an Opening View for my latest Exhibition, Beneath. Come along
and join me from 1 to 3pm at The Peacock Gallery. It's so great to have this space for Artists
to show their work. A big thank you to the team at Maiden Erlegh School for inviting me.

The works in Beneath involve working with layering of materials and incorporating weathered found items
left behind by humans, such as sea glass and ceramic fragments. When painting, I explore emotions felt
in response to the place and energy of the situation I find myself in. I love working with water-based inks
and textures to create surface, depth and fluidity. I am interested in the way landscape and the watery
environment relate to the internal landscape of the mind and body.

The Newlyn paintings were made during a stay in this Cornish Port, influenced by the light, colour
and atmosphere of the marine environment alongside industry and community. Water trails, Immersion
and the Aqueous series were also largely painted in Newlyn with an awareness of being surrounded,
enveloped even by the beautiful turquoise sea. Watching twilight hills, Inside the landscape
and Walking inside the landscape were painted at my home studio in Sulhamstead, West Berkshire.
I was thinking of the sense of land as if I was part of the landscape. These were made in a very different
environment from the Cornish paintings. The landscape around me consists of rural hills
and fields, with both river and canal close by.

Each work is both an exploration of an outer environment and response to the materials. Many decisions
are made as the work progresses based on variables, such as how the marks made interact with what
is already there or the nature of flow of paint and pigment on the surface. I am inspired by land and water,
which echoes the external environment and internal body. My work is an expression of my inner world,
which sometimes comes as a surprise when it is revealed by the finished piece!