My paintings inhabit the border between abstraction and figuration and have their basis in exploration through seeing and engagement with the tactility of the process. I draw on a wide range of sources from the most obvious classical themes in painting to the subtlety of philosophical and mystical thought. In making paintings I am absorbed in the discovery of an energized sense of connection and consciousness between things that are emerging from that which is hidden into that which is seen.
The use of colour in the painting is vital to the sense of presence, energy and subtly that is discovered or revealed through the process of working. It provides a source of atmosphere and links each work with my current ideas which are sometimes visual, sometimes historical, philosophical, poetic, musical, intuitive, perceptual or experimental. I work on paintings in groups, an energizing and dynamic process whereby there is a constant discovery of new visual aspects in the relationships between each painting.
Each group of work is a new journey and each painting an new kind of sensitivity and living energy to be realised. Through the process of constant reviewing and reflection the paintings are worked towards the realisation of a new sense of connectedness that links them with contemporary life, cultural histories, artists, practices and symbologies.
STUDIED
1978-81 BA Hons Painting, St Martins School of Art
1981-82 MA Painting Chelsea School of Art
1982-83 Junior Fellowship Cardiff School of Art S.G.I.H.E.
AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
1989-93 Digswell Arts Fellow
1988 Villers David Foundation Award – Italy
1988 Hertfordshire Artist in Schools Project
1987 In the Making, Herts Open (Prize-winner)
1986 Hertfordshire Artist in Schools Mural Project
1984 Hertfordshire Artist in Schools Mural Project
1985 Eastern Arts Grant
1983 Young Artists Grant, Welsh Arts Council
1983 Boise Travelling Scholarship – USA
LECTURING
1983-2007 Senior Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art & Design
1996-97 Visiting lecturer Nottingham Trent Fine Art
1986-96Visiting Lecturer at University of Hertfordshire/St Albans School of Art & Design
1984-86 Visiting Lecturer at Leicester School of Art
1983 – 2000 Lecture/teaching visits to many UK art schools
1982-83 Junior Fellowship Cardiff
WORK IN COLLECTIONS (recent)
Yantai Art Museum, China
Artall, Nanjing, China
Komechak Art Gallery Chicargo USA
Priseman Seabrook Collection UK
Falmouth Art Gallery UK
Swindon Museum & Art Gallery UK
East Contemporary Art, University Campus Suffolk UK
Rugby Art Gallery & Museum UK
Selected solo exhibitions
- Shrine Paintings, 2014, St Marylebone Church Crypt Gallery, London (solo)
- Paintings 2, Letchworth Arts Centre
- 2011 One Year, Letchworth Arts Centre
Selected recent group exhibitions
2017
- Female Abstraction: Celebration of Female British Contemporary Painters, Sticks Gallery, Gosport
- Testcard P, Marylebone Crypt Gallery, London
- Contemporary Masters from Britain, Priseman Seabrook Collection touring exhibition: China, Yantai Art Museum, Jiangsu Arts Museum, Artall, Nanjing and Tianjing Academy Fine Arts Museum.
- Open Studios, Freya Purdue & Marius von Brasch, Isle of Wight
- Anything Goes?, Bermondsey Project Space, London
- Contemporary Painting: In Good Health, Menier Gallery, London
- Colour: a Kind of Bliss; Curated by Freya Purdue and Lucy Cox,
- Marylebone Church Crypt Gallery, London
- Contemporary Masters from the East of England, The Cut, Halesworth
2016
- 30 x 30 x 34, Marylebone Crypt Gallery, London
- Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, West Gallery, Quay Arts, Isle of Wight
2015
- Contemporary British Painters, 34 leading British painters, St Marylebone Church Crypt, London
- Stations of the Cross, Brentwood Cathedral and SE9 Container Gallery London
2014
- Contemporary British Painters Group Exhibition, St Marylebone Church Crypt, London
- @paintbritain, 45 Contemporary Painters, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich Contemporary British Painting,
- Priseman-Seabrook Collection, Huddersfield Art Gallery Abstract
- Painting, Swindon Museum & Art Gallery
2013
- Scope, Miami Beach, International Contemporary Art Show
- Contemporary British Painters, St Marylebone Church Crypt, London
- East Contemporary Art, (collection 21st Century Practice) University Campus Suffolk
2010
- Harmony, Ratio and the Cosmos, Yarrow Gallery Oundle International Festival 2009
- Time & Being; UWE Gallery
- 2002 Through the Surface, Galeria Stara Bwa, Lublin Poland
Curatorial Projects
2017
Colour: a Kind of Bliss; Curated by Freya Purdue and Lucy Cox, Marylebone Church Crypt Gallery, London
2016
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition 40 Painters, Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight (Curator)
I am absorbed in the discovery of an energized sense of connection and consciousness between things that are emerging from that which is hidden into that which is seen.
