Artist

Working in both oils and acrylics I paint abstract landscapes and make small sculptures from found materials, assembling discarded things.

The starting point for a painting is usually one of my own drawings, watercolours, photographs. These are often of disintegrating natural and industrial structures and the objects that I find.

When walking outside I am always on the look- out for things that catch my eye; manmade or not, discarded things that I might use in my sculptures and to draw and draw on in my paintings. I will pick something up and carry it for a while and see if it lasts the walk or gets rejected before I get back to the studio. As far back as I can remember I have picked things up off the ground.’

The sculptures I make and have around me in the studio often inform the paintings.

Working on several canvases at once, a series of work develops. Paintings are linked by the time and circumstances in which they are made. Paint is put on and then scraped off repeatedly until ‘a painting surprises me when I see it’. Early stages of a painting take time as layers build up slowly almost as if the painting needs its own history.  Often, paintings are put aside for days or months and brought back so they can be tackled in new ways. I spend as much time thinking about what paintings need as actually doing the painting: what is needed for the composition, images I might use, effects I want. I never lay out my colour palette in advance.  Often the last stage of a painting is done quickly and impulsively.

I originally trained as a Textile Designer (print) and then later as a Speech and Language Therapist. Having always painted, until recently almost exclusively self- taught I decided to do some formal study in painting to extend my skill base. From 2015 to 2019 I studied on a range of courses at Morley College. Notably, Advanced Painting Practice followed by two years Fine Art Mentoring .The skills I acquired were the catalyst to my current art practice, based in Peckham, London.

Exhibitions and Awards

  • 2022
    • Art Seen Magazine Issue 3 Spring 2022 Gita Joshi The Curator’s Salon
    • Dulwich Festival Open Artists’ studios
  • 2021
    • Gita Joshi The Curators Salon ‘The Marks we Make’ Online group exhibition
    • Small House Gallery, Online group exhibition curated by Eldi Dundee
    • Rules of six, Online group exhibition with Terry Barber, Caroline Ingham,
    • Catherine James, Gill Lucas, Tabitha Peake
  • 2020
    • Behind Closed Doors ,Online group exhibition
  • 2019
    • Common Ground Fine Art Mentoring students Espacio Gallery
    • Embody Spaghetti House, WC1A 2QD A group exhibition of sculpture and Masks and Wearable sculpture by Morley College students- tutor Lara Ritosa Roberts
    • London Bridge Open 2 part of London Festival of Architecture, London Bridge Hotel
    • Dulwich Festival Open Artists’ studios
  • 2018
    • Final exhibition Fine Art Mentoring students  Espacio Gallery, London
    • Two women show with Caroline Ingham Jeannie Avent Gallery, London
    • Made 2018 Drawing, Painting and Sculpture: Group Exhibition Morley College- shortlisted for Selector’s Choice Prize
    • The Lovely Gallery Winners from 2017 Open Summer Exhibition
  • 2017
    • The Lovely Gallery Winter Art Fair 2017 (group show)
    • Shortlisted National Open Art Competition UK
    • Dulwich Festival Open Artists’ studios (and 2012, 2013)
    • Two Landings up; Advanced Painting Practice: Group Exhibition Morley College
  • 2016
    • Shortlisted Society of Women Artists
    • Made: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture Exhibition, Group exhibition Morley Gallery,
  • 2013
    • Royal Watercolour Society: Mall Galleries