"Bearing Witness" Painting

Heather is an artist who has lived and worked most of her life in Somerset. Having trained and specialised in painting for her BA at Bath Spa and MA at the City and Guilds school London.
Her recent works are inspired from studying the quitessentially English conversation piece, as she recognises in the narrative the same aspects of gesture that we see on 21st century social networking sites; they both mask an underlying truth. Her work plays with the idea of using traditional media (oil painting, etching and sculpture), to explore the way we display our wealth and social status in modern British life.
The figures in her work are defined by their social situations, and she uses these situations to explore the narratives of British culture. How the myths and ideals of Britishness are embedded in our culture and reinforced through the objects we choose, the clothes we wear, the magazines we read and the social groups we choose to be "seen" with.
Many of Heathers images feature a small dog reminiscent of the works of William Hogarth who has been a strong influence on her work along with the works of Thomas Gainsborough, James Gillray, Paula Rego and John Currin. Through the media of painting, drawing, sculpture and etching Heather creates a narrative of our consumer driven society, while continuing to consider the larger idea of the 'national' (history, tradition, character and values).