Self-Belief Painting

Abi is an award winning artist who lost her sight but gained her vision. British born, she grew up in Hertfordshire and now lives in France near Biarritz since 2002 where she creates and sells her art on-line and exhibits on a regular basis. She paints her abstract figurative female nudes and portraits with a variety of mediums. She is always experimenting with tools, technics, styles and colour with her beloved chosen subjects. These mixed media artworks often start with an ink sketch or a watercolour painting working with her model live and with photographs, before creating a larger canvas version. Although continuously inspired by female wisdom, strength, beauty, and the natural world much of Abi’s unique style comes from her impaired vision, being blind in one eye and impaired in the other, creating a pattern over everything she sees and causing foregrounds and backgrounds to often merge. Her influences come from Picasso and his altered cubist reality, plus the wide variety of styles he innovated, Henry Moore and his large mainly bronze sculptures suggesting the female form (having grown up near some and near where he lived) and Klimt for his composition, symbolism, patterns and portrayal of the female body (especially in in his ‘Golden Phase’). Statement I’m constantly sketching portraits and poses looking for that stand out expression, look, pose or composition that encapsulates peacefulness, joy, beauty and wisdom with a mix of spontaneity, intuition and conscious decision making. My sketches and paintings are in the moment, like me when I am creating them. They are my way of being closer to the human condition as I am partially sighting and cannot see people’s expressions or the beautiful lines of the female form unless I am very close. It’s how I make sense of the abstract world around me and the feelings within me. Creating my art is an extremely personal process which has I believe saved me. When I lost my vision and most of my confidence, my art gave me a way back to connecting with my natural inner peace and happiness. My art is a harnessed result of these emotions and connections. I’m so appreciative of my time in the studio and am forever grateful that other people from around the world connect to my art.