Friday, August 23rd – 5pm to 7pm
Artist Statement
“Having always been interested in art and drawing from a very early age after watching my uncle paint a self portrait and then being bought a felt pen artist set of Van Gosh’s sun flowers, I didn’t really attempt anything else until I arrived in Bermuda some 20 years later. The vivid colours of the landscape and the ocean took my breath away and I started dabbling with pastels, then oils and spent many years painting with Maria Smith in her kitchen with other enthusiastic artists. When she retired several of us continued in Peter Hebberd’s garage at Spanish Point, the ‘Point Share Artists’. My passion at first was definitely painting flowers using thick brush strokes and heightened even more after a trip to Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny. I then started experimenting with acrylic pours which I also found fascinating and I had several shows at the gallery which mainly depicted the ocean and shorelines of Bermuda with their vivid and vibrant blues and greens After a couple of years I went onto acrylic as it was quick drying and tried different styles and found that abstract was the most satisfying and freeing.
“My current show will be the first time exhibiting in the Onions Gallery which I am very excited about although my first thought was ‘that’s an awful lot of space to fill! I thought – space, expanse, vastness large canvases! With these thoughts the theme and title ‘Worlds Apart’ came to be continuing with the abstract theme introducing different textures including house paint, as did Picasso, using both pallet knife brush and wedge to get the desired effects and mixed media. For several of the pieces I was inspired by the vivid colours used in many modern day abstracts. Painting on a large canvas is extremely freeing and exhilarating to have such a large blank space to fill and let the imagination fly, (although slightly daunting as well) ! I am hoping my pieces will spark the imagination of the viewer even though they are all titled.”