Working as a professional artist since 2008, recent exhibitions include
> Graham Hunter Gallery, September to October 2023
>The Other Art Fair, 2022 and 23 (12 fairs since 2015)
> Work sold on a rolling basis by Images in Frames, London and Kingfisher Art Gallery, Chipping Norton.
> The Other Side, Irving Contemporary 2021
> Spring Forth, Quercus Gallery 2021
> Inside Out, Outside In, Irving Contemporary 2020
> 'Beyond Other Horizons, Contemporary paintings made in Britain and Romania', a British Council funded exhibition at Iaşi Palace of Culture Romania, British Council Symposium 3 March. 1-31 March 2020
> V-Art Show, online zoom exhibition in collaboration with 15 international artists May and June 2020
> The Affordable Art Fair, Battersea March 2019
> Fresh Art Fair, Cheltenham, April 2019
> The Other Art Fair: Brooklyn May and November 2019 and 11 Editions of the Fair in London + Bristol since 2015.
> Byard Art Gallery, Cambridge from Spring 2018 onwards including 'Land, Sea, Sky' Autumn 2019.
Alex’s paintings are poetic, process led responses to landscape. Drawing on remembered and translated experiences, sources drawings and photographs, she describes embodied experiences of light, sky, journeys and the changing seasons. She is interested in the 3dimensionality of a painting, carving into and raising the surface through processes of construction, destruction and material play.
The paintings come from a deep love of the world, and a sense of awe and wonder. She hopes they will remind you of places you have known or would like to know.
They evolve through an intuitive and physical interaction with materials. accumulated and translated experiences. They come from a deep love for the world we live in and from a sense of awe and wonder. I hope they will speak to you of light, sky, journeys, the touch of weather or the smell of different seasons – and that they will remind you of places you have known or would like to know.
The creative process of a painting has several stages. I begin by walking, running and drawing and taking ‘fast photographs’ outside. This is a way of feeling the landscape at a cellular, and sensory level. In the studio I have prepared birch or poplar panels with layers of a traditional gesso ground (a mixture of rabbit skin glue and whiting). Gesso is a sensitive and responsive material. It remembers being a liquid and communicates every minute scratch or bump. This means that the painting process is like a conversation. I create texture with a brush and palette knife or by sanding and carving back into the gesso. Thinking about the 3 dimensionality of the picture plane, I begin by using a high-quality light fast acrylic ink to reveal the textured surface and add base colour. I build on this colour ground by adding, and removing, layers of acrylic mixed media. The painting gradually evolves through an intuitive and physical interaction with the materials. I aim for a sense of balance or charge between saturated areas of colour patina and stripped back areas without paint. I know they are finished when I feel a sense of “lining up”, when the painting and I have both said enough. Often, this is when the painting tells me its name.
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What have other people said?
“ Turner paintings redone by Rothko” visitor to The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn, 2019
“A Rough British Wilderness Vibe” Visitor to The Other Art Fair, Victoria House 2018
“Moments of reverie and the finding of sanctuary” Visitor to The Other Art Fair, Victoria House 2018
“It is like you have a filter between the world and you. That filter is light and everything you see is through brightness. Through you, I see that too, even when there is darkness.” Visitor to The Other Art Fair, Victoria House 2016
“Before I saw your work, I felt tired and I just wanted to go home. Now, I would like to stay here. I feel energized and calm. I could stay here all night”. Visitor to The Other Art Fair, Truman Brewery, 2015
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Working as an artist since 2007, Alex has three strands to her creative practice:
1) The production, exhibition and sale of landscape inspired artworks that invite viewers to pause, be, breathe and be immersed. Working from a studio in Hertfordshire she regularly sells through The Other Art Fair, BYARD Art Gallery and Kendalls Fine Art as well as through other exhibitions, galleries and independent art consultants. Alex has work in private collections in France, Germany, Norway, the USA, Japan and the UK.
2) The devising, delivery and management of person and community centred creative learning projects. Alex has over ten years experience working collaboratively with schools, community groups, arts and cultural organisations including Bedfordshire University as a visiting lecturer for the Foundation Course, Royal Opera House Bridge, A New Direction, Brent Museum and Archives, Watford Museum, Middlesex University, The Map Consortium and The Wroxham Transformative Learning Alliance. This practice is grounded in 5 years working as Co-Director and Co-Founder of HertsCreation C.I.C using the arts as a tool for social change.
3) Activities that support community building and professional learning for the visual arts sector. This has included programming workshops, talks and events during a freelance role as Collaborative Partnerships Manager for Be Smart About Art (2017-19) as well as occasional 1-2-1 coaching.
