Statement

My paintings are of time and place, initially based on old B/W photographic imagery, which I appropriate. They are a combination of fantasy, reality and childhood memories. These photographic sources are mechanically and digitally changed and superimposed through modern methods, to be painted in a traditional manner onto canvas.

Like the fairytale, the viewer is taken into another world of fantasy and non-reality; a voyage through time and place into the unconscious. However, my paintings are a reversal of a fairy story insofar as to say the tale is better without illustration. The child's imagination gives the story a personal meaning, preserving the mystery as well as the substance of the work. My work shows the imagery but only hints at a story, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks. My paintings are nostalgic and sometimes disturbing. They are often initially based on old black and white family photographs of people and places I know. I appropriate these images through modern methods, both mechanically and digitally, transferring the final work by hand to the canvas. I lift elements of normality from the photos, rearranging them into a work that is both surreal and personal. Internal images from dreams and the unconscious are equally as valid or perhaps even more so as those derived from the external reality. My work has been described as graphical in it's style, taking influence from the Benday dots of newspaper prints to the pixels of the computer. I take reference from the black and white and silent films of the 1920's with works such as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"   by Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang's, "Metropolis". I am also inspired by Kubin, the graphic artist and illustrator whose work used symbolism and mythology where dream and reality constantly merged.

"Deeper meaning resides in the fairytale told to me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught to me in life." Schiller.

Qualifications

1994 GNVQ Level Three Advanced with merit. Art / Design
1997 BA. CH Degree in Visual Art with Art History. University of York
2001 MA Painting. University of Hull

Exhibitions

1996 Scarborough Art Society Exhibition, Scarborough Art Gallery
1997 Scarborough Art Gallery
1998 Ferens Gallery Hull
1999 The Gallery North Street, Scarborough
2000 Hull University

2001 Scarborough Art Gallery
2001 Patton Gallery Whitby
2001 Leeds City Art Gallery

2002 Blands Cliff Gallery Scarborough
2003 Ferens Gallery Hull

2004 YMCA Scarborough
2004 Leeds City Art Gallery
2004 East Coast Open Scarborough
2004 The Paddock Whitby
2004 Willie's Fruit and Cake Gallery, Richmond. Solo Exhibition

2005 YMCA Scarborough
2005 Ferens Gallery Hull
2005 Yorkshire Coast Open Exhibition Whitby

2006 Yorkshire Coast Open Exhibition Whitby

Contact

Email Eileen