Projects over the years
2020 : Lockdown Flowers
Growing and painting flowers helped me to stay positive during spring and summer months of 2020
2018- 2020 : Landscapes of Play
Observing my children play in nature brought back memories of feeling free and being part of all living things on our planet. The simple joys of playing with falling leaves, climbing trees or watching light passing through a spider web just had to be painted.
There is an article about this project on mamsie
2017 - 2018: Visual Diary of a Mother
Since becoming a mother in 2011, I found it difficult to focus on painting and as my children grew I was becoming more and more frustrated. This project was a challenge for myself to make three drawings at the end of each day based on the events of that day. All drawings were made from memory in watercolour on paper. I continued making these drawings from November 2017 to March 2018, culminating with a solo show of the Diary at 5th Base Gallery London as part of Women's History Month
In 2019 Visual Diary of a Mother was digitized with kind support of Tom Bilson at The Courtauld Institute of Art and I am now getting it ready to publish.
2010 - 2017 : Londonscape
It was a strange period of trying to work in and out of haze of two pregnancies and mothering small children. There are many drawings of children, cats and random objects. Here I'll have only a small selection of my favourite paintings of that time.
2016 : Honey Pot Lane
Honey Pot Lane is a place in London known for gatherings of mostly immigrant labourers outside large retail centers specialising in building materials. Although I wanted to make a documentary consisting of life stories of these people, I wasn't able to make it while looking after two little children and ended up making two paintings.
This project has also inspired a song by my friends 0din called HoneyPot Lane
2013 - 2014 : 5th Base Film Nights
From November'13 to July'14 James Beatty and I curated an international short film nights. It was free to take part and free to attend supported by 5th Base Gallery London
2012 - 2013 : 5th Base Ornamental Status
Ornamental Status were a series of exhibitions showing paintings and objects that can be used in household and be viewed as objects of art at the same time. James Beatty and I curated all Ornamental Status exhibitions. Please let me know if you would like to know more.
2012 - 2019 : 5th Base Gallery
After becoming a mother I felt an urgent need to be connected with the arts community and after a few attempts to hire spaces for exhibitions, my partner James and I opened 5th Base Gallery in 23 Heneage Street, off Brick Lane in East London. At the beginning we curated exhibitions, organised art auctions of works by new artists, organised and curated film nights and collaborated with street artists in our annual 5th Base outside art (one of the largest murals in the East End)
After a few attempts to sell artworks, 5th Base became a gallery for hire. Through the years we kept hire prices as low as possible and continued supporting emerging artists with affordable professional exhibition space and free advice. In seven years 5th Base gallery held over 400 exhibitions with many great artworks on show. In 2019 we closed 5th Base to concentrate on our personal projects.
If you would like to know more about 5th Base then please get in touch and check this interview
2010 : Partygirl
In spring 2010 I art directed short film noir Partygirl directed by James Gutierrez and produced separate artworks in preparation for the film.
2008 - 2009 : MA Anthropology of Material Culture, UCL
Focus of my study was Anthropology of Art and Architecture, which resulted in a dissertation titled
Virtual House: Transmission of Values from SIMS2 to in-Life Communication. My research looked into how the invisible architecture of computer game SIMS2 affects behaviour of children in their peer groups.
At the same time I've made a visual essay trying to explain what electricity is to someone who have never came across on electrical device and have photographed life in the studio of a traditional tailor in Kings Cross.
2007 - 2008 : Rain 1.25
After braking up from un emotional love affair I've created a series of hand-drawn stop frame animations which were joined by the theme of rain that washes marks away and helps new events to grow.
Rain 1.25 evolved into 5 looped videos, which I planned to make into a surround video installation. Although the animations took many months to draw, this project came to a halt when I've realised that I needed to do something else.
This project was developed with moral support from Alex Forster, who was composing sound track for the installation. When I stopped working on Rain 1.25 we agreed that animations looped to the Sound of Silence.
2006 - 2009 : London time
Without much of a theme i was drawing and painting whatever I saw before me: memories, friends, lovers, walkways, flowers, anything to keep moving. Here are just a few images from that period. Most artworks from that time were either destroyed or lost.
2005 - 2006 Travels
Time of continuous sketching while moving about both in space and thought. In those two years I had two art residencies and worked on restoration of renaissance murals in Sevilla, Spain. Most works of that time are either given away, lost or destroyed
2004 - 2005 BA Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University at Wirral Met
In my one year BA I looked a pentimento in old master paintings and then used repetition in my own artworks to create a sense of movement.
1999 - 2004
After a nervous breakdown and without having anyone to talk with I started drawing. Drawing was always there for me. In 1999 I happened to pick up a flyer inviting to an arts studio. At the opening I've met Geoff Molyneux, an artist who was also a tutor at the Liverpool Arts Center. Geoff invited me to come over to the Arts Center to see their student exhibition. I fell in love with the Center, it smelt of paint and coffee, people there were friendly and they took me in to study art. While at the Arts Center and until my BA I was trying to pass on the emotional state of people and places through imagery.
