"Alchemy II" Painting

Gina Parr b: 1957 is a British Painter and Photographer.

"Nature, memory and identity serve as the cornerstone of my work. My childhood spent diversely sea fishing for mackerel with my father and at home with my mother's hoarding and mental health issues inherently informs my practice. Consequently the work is imbued with the atmosphere and narrative of both these experiences, whilst exploring the liminal space between abstraction and figuration, absence and presence.

My paintings are formed through layers of oil, charcoal, pastel and acrylic, scratching, drawing, removing and adding into the surface, until reconciled. When not in my painting studio and whilst traveling, I 'paint with my camera’, instead, seeking to find my paintings within the marks, stains, colours and textures of distressed and weathered walls and other surfaces, some of which have intentionally or accidentally been laid down by others. My intent is to photographically frame these images and subsequently print them exactly as found. To date, I have produced series of photographs from: Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Cuba, France, Spain, Morocco and most recently Italy. My photographs are often mistaken for my paintings and I've found a continuing symbiosis between the two practices.

I play with colour in both my painting and my photography, sometimes its absence excites me, and sometimes I have a visceral need of dark intensity but the combination is always emotionally charged and certainly stems from my now inbuilt childhood concerns to find my space within the chaos of home. Ultimately, this binary relationship with colour or its absence leads to a longing to find an emotive and visual balance within the work which I hope, will in turn, speak to the viewer’s own sensate experience.

In both my painting and photography I’m seeking to find a topography that is wholly mine: formed out of past chaos and loss, present state of mind and hope for the future."

Originally trained as a Fine Artist, graduating with a First Class BA Honours Degree, she went on to Chelsea College of Art to study Set Design, leading to a 25-year career Production Designing a multitude of sets and stages for the likes of David Bowie, Kylie, Robbie Williams, “Shooting Stars” with Vic and Bob, the original Albert Square for “Eastenders” and Art Direction for Richard Eyres on "Insurance Man", Alan Bennett's Drama for BBC.

She returned to her full time Art practice in 2007.