Welcome
Fiona has exhibited internationally, in China, Cyprus, Latvia, Dhaka, France, and across the UK. She writes:
'For 8 years I painted in the landscape, in Kent, China and Cyprus, making numerous watercolours to explore the elements of nature that would allow me to create a synthesis in paint. I began to compose with colours and shapes on canvas from many memories and experiences of walking in the land in all seasons and at all times of day. At times, my years living in Cyprus and Lagos suggested imagery as I started to lay down paint. These experiences are pivotal to my work though they are usually a starting point to create a poem in paint or to evoke a sense of place. Always, my love of landscape is the driving force for my paintings.
My awareness of the issue of climate change forms a backdrop to my work, often through my frequent references to water. At times, my work reflects on the necessity of water for life, other times, on extreme weather conditions and flooding. Pools, the sea, and rivers are often motifs that inform my mark making and colours. I also like to highlight the power of nature against our fragility, which is displayed in my 2023 painting ‘Sheltering From the Storm.’
I start by exploring marks and colours using combinations of layered oil paint, stains of acrylic paint and sometimes ink. I want to combine imagined realities and visual reality to create a reflection of thoughts on nature in paint. The placing of colours and shapes usually evolves as I work, and my brush work is often influenced by working with ink on rice paper, exploring the identities of spontaneous brush strokes as a parallel for my emotional connections to the land.
There is also an underlying narrative to many of my paintings and some reflect on the search for those quiet places, thoughts on the transience of life, people and places remembered.
When I paint I feel my way emotionally through imaginary landscapes or landscapes which are remembered or totally inspired by materials. My 'paint marks are equivalents for a journey through paint, they are paint poems. The experience of exploring colours and watching the painting emerge is as real as being in nature. Much of my artwork reflects on things felt and seen and what I call the 'unseen.'
Often I overlap landscape, still life or figures as part of my belief that everything is connected and I want to convey something about this unity.
Recent trips to China and a painting Fellowship next to the Great Wall of China in 2016 led to a deepening interest in calligraphy which I have been exploring through a series of ink paintings inspired by living next to the Great Wall of China. Calligraphic marks combined with specific colours evoke and create new places for me to journey through.'
'For 8 years I painted in the landscape, in Kent, China and Cyprus, making numerous watercolours to explore the elements of nature that would allow me to create a synthesis in paint. I began to compose with colours and shapes on canvas from many memories and experiences of walking in the land in all seasons and at all times of day. At times, my years living in Cyprus and Lagos suggested imagery as I started to lay down paint. These experiences are pivotal to my work though they are usually a starting point to create a poem in paint or to evoke a sense of place. Always, my love of landscape is the driving force for my paintings.
My awareness of the issue of climate change forms a backdrop to my work, often through my frequent references to water. At times, my work reflects on the necessity of water for life, other times, on extreme weather conditions and flooding. Pools, the sea, and rivers are often motifs that inform my mark making and colours. I also like to highlight the power of nature against our fragility, which is displayed in my 2023 painting ‘Sheltering From the Storm.’
I start by exploring marks and colours using combinations of layered oil paint, stains of acrylic paint and sometimes ink. I want to combine imagined realities and visual reality to create a reflection of thoughts on nature in paint. The placing of colours and shapes usually evolves as I work, and my brush work is often influenced by working with ink on rice paper, exploring the identities of spontaneous brush strokes as a parallel for my emotional connections to the land.
There is also an underlying narrative to many of my paintings and some reflect on the search for those quiet places, thoughts on the transience of life, people and places remembered.
When I paint I feel my way emotionally through imaginary landscapes or landscapes which are remembered or totally inspired by materials. My 'paint marks are equivalents for a journey through paint, they are paint poems. The experience of exploring colours and watching the painting emerge is as real as being in nature. Much of my artwork reflects on things felt and seen and what I call the 'unseen.'
Often I overlap landscape, still life or figures as part of my belief that everything is connected and I want to convey something about this unity.
Recent trips to China and a painting Fellowship next to the Great Wall of China in 2016 led to a deepening interest in calligraphy which I have been exploring through a series of ink paintings inspired by living next to the Great Wall of China. Calligraphic marks combined with specific colours evoke and create new places for me to journey through.'
