So in case you haven't already noticed, at the start of 2019 I launched a new collection which was inspired by Brighton City and the coast. I moved here in November last year, and since then, the sea, the beautiful sunsets, and various aspects of this place have been the focus of many new paintings. This collection will have pride of place at my upcoming exhibition in April and is for sale, so make sure that you come and visit to see the pieces in person!
Many of you will recognise this painting of the iconic "Brighton Palace Pier". One of my friends is very talented at photography and sent her photo to me for inspiration. I just loved how she captured the unique, purple sunset that cast a mysterious, colourful lighting on everything.
This painting depicts the beautiful undercliff walk that runs along this large rock face. It's amazing to walk along and feel so close to the sea. The painting is named "Stones" because every time I come down here, I walk along the stoney beach, right up to the sea, and throw in a stone. That stone represents a prayer, or maybe something that I want to let go off, and I just toss it into the sea. It seems like just a little stone, a little action but then I turn around and I see this huge rock, and I realise that many little stones will eventually form a rock of that size. Sometimes it feels like prayers aren't heard or answered, just because they are small, but overtime they will build up to form something bigger, one at a time.
This painting is not what I would usually paint. Funnily enough, it's actually the view from the window in my art room. At that particular moment in time, I had been thinking about the huge change in my life. Going from a quiet village with views of trees, into a loud, busy city with views of council flats and ugly high rise buildings. What surprised me is that it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would before I moved here. The things that I thought I would miss most, I have come to realise were never as important to me as I thought, and vice versa. Looking out at this new view, I thought, I'm still under the same sky.
I imagined what the view would be like from one of those windows on the buildings I painted. There's someone who lives there, living a completely different life to mine, with a completely different perspective on the world, but they are also under the same sky.
I used to struggle with feeling like I had enough in common with other people, and that would cause a barrier between my interactions with certain people, but the problem was I was focusing on the tiny details that shouldn't matter. Painting this image, I realised that maybe, just the simple fact that we all live on this planet, under the same, beautiful sky is enough to give us a reason to interact. Painting this also challenged me, as I tend to only paint what I consider to be "beautiful", or worth painting. I hate to admit it, but I sometimes I fall into the trap of not painting something just because I think other people won't like it, or won't get it. I thought to myself, "Who would want tower blocks on their wall?". Sometimes it's about more than that though, it's about painting a message. The message is about accepting everyone for who they are, and whatever their view is, because at the end of the day, we all have something in common. We all enjoy a good sunset.
I named this painting "Shifting" because I wanted to represent slow movement. When the tide comes in, it gradually ebbs it way closer and closer, and it's quite hard to tell which way it's going at first. Whenever I start something, I have a tendency to want things to happen suddenly, and if they don't it's easy to want to give up. I need to learn to be patient, because everything takes it own time, and the tide doesn't come in all in one flood. It gently arrives wave after wave. There is also heavy clouds up above, but further in the distance, the light is shining. As the water comes in, the clouds are slowly fading away, and the light is starting to sparkle on the water. It's a picture of hope.
This painting was all about capturing the passion and spirit of these birds. Seagulls like to be in a flock, near to others so I wanted to create the feeling of being surrounded by a whole flock of them. (Which is something that I experienced but luckily I didn't get poo on me!) I personally love seagulls, but I know that not everyone does, and it felt like a bit of challenge to see if I could make everyone fall in love with their personality. Funny story, I actually was walking along the pier and a seagull swooped down and plucked a fried chicken stick straight out of this man's hand as he was about to eat it. You had to be there, but take it from me, it was a moment worth seeing! The point I'm trying to make is that these birds are so free. They take want they want, they make all the noise they want, they fly where they want, they never let me sleep in. What a life. So this painting represents their free spirit, their passion and the colourful personality.
Dictionary result for spirited
/ˈspɪrɪtɪd/adjective 1.full of energy, enthusiasm, and determination.
This painting "Call me Out" was actually painted a long time before I even knew I was moving here, but I had a vision of Brighton and living there in my head, and I really felt lead to come here even then. The painting itself is very faded, in muted tones of grey. This represents the unknown of where I was going, and being unable to see further than a few steps ahead. I felt called to this place, and it looked scary and foggy, and I didn't know what would happen, but I made a decision that I would just step out and trust that things would be okay. It was also inspired by a beautiful song "Oceans" by hillsong United - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw The song for me, represents all these paintings which have come from me coming to this place, not knowing more than one step on front of me, but trusting that everything would work out.
Feel free to contact me if you would be interested in giving a home to any of these pieces, or if you have any questions. Of course, over time more artwork will be added to this collection so to keep updated on new work make sure you follow me on social media. Thank you for reading,
- Sophie