Artist Statement
My work is an invitation to pause, look closer, and feel the living energy and atmospheric beauty of the landscapes that surround us.
My Story
All my life, I have never been able to shake off the feeling that I could see beyond my reality, that the broken and bombed-out scenes all around me were not all there was. I was born the year after the Second World War, when the lack of colour in towns and cities combined with the fallout from personal loss was heavy in the atmosphere. Without going into my own personal ups and downs of my world as an adult, I found that in my formative years and my adult life, art was a constant means of surviving and overcoming it all, no exceptions.
My big WHY (do I paint), is that when I am totally immersed in creating artwork from conception to bringing it to life on my chosen surface, I am precisely in the space and flow of what I call ‘what makes me tick’. I love what I do, and so I keep doing it. One big side effect of this is that I can create a calm space within me that frees up my mind to receive guidance from the unseen, from beyond the physical. In that space, I know how to stay focused and connected to my work and to my true self. It is rather like a meditative state. As breathing is to life, immersion in creating artwork is breath for the artist in me. The two are inextricably linked, working together within and showing me why I have to create artwork at all. The beauty of this experience is that I can be in that state quickly and consciously.
In the exciting decade of the 1960s I trained at art College to study illustration, and learn about the print industry, how to create artwork to a high standard in very little time. Skills that still serve me today. Artists took the commercial route to the workplace, as there was still enough demand for hand-rendered work from artists who could freelance or work inside the print industry itself. By the 1990s and early 2000s, however, I found myself teaching modern graphic artists to do what they really preferred and wanted to do: paint and draw. Computer programmes made many tasks unnecessary.
My work has included muralwork, commissions for book illustration, wall hangings and a range of large and small drawings and paintings that I produce regularly. Various ways of creating prints using handmade lino cuts and etchings. I have tutored small art groups and helped individual improvers, as well as both amateurs and semi-professionals. During Covid lockdown, I took a break, relocated further into the Southwest region of the UK where I have set up my studio once again to begin this exciting new phase of my life, still doing what I love and moving closer to my brother. During and after Covid, I delved into the whole subject of consciousness and how our minds work, which has always been fascinating to me and has connected me to my inner knowing that I allude to above. It has been the missing information within my own life and it has turned out to be the most important journey of all. It is integrated into all that I do artistically and how I relate to people generally, especially to my nearest and dearest.
Last but not least, the resources I turn to for inspiration for my artwork are wholly connected to my passion for this beautiful planet of ours. The earth itself with all the landscapes of land, sea and sky, together with the dramatic influence of weather conditions on the four seasons of the year. Ready-made inspiration from which to create my artwork. My fundamental intention over the years has been to create work that connects with those who see it, with the added hope that it may inspire them in some way if they have an artistic ‘itch’ to scratch such as wanting to bring their own artist out into the open.
“I purchased one of Val’s original oil seascapes, and it is even more captivating in person. The depth, movement, and capture of natural light completely transform the room throughout the day. Val was wonderful to communicate with—answering all my questions warmly and making the whole purchase and delivery seamless. Her work brings so much calm and beauty to our living space.”
