Fiona Stanbury

As a child I used to lie in fields and watch the sky float over me, and find worlds of meaning in the colours and shapes of the clouds. I explored the land in all seasons, and sought for a form to express this spirit. This relationship and connection with landscape followed me into adulthood, and my work always relates back to these experiences. I want to find a paint equivalent, a synthesis for my many walks.

Currently I am working on a series of paintings which sometimes refer to waterfalls and rivers with evolving thoughts on passages through life experiences. Other times I travel through the various suggestions of places that appear from marks of colour as I work.I am taking my interest in calligraphy, abstraction, colour and suggestions of figuration towards exploring my personal thoughts about the passage of life and my sense of myself in relation to landscape. At times figures emerge in the work.

When I was 12 I began to study Chinese watercolours, especially landscapes and animal paintings that had been rendered with simple, expressive brushstrokes. It has always been natural for me to paint with colour rather than draw something then fill it in with colour. I follow the life of the brushstroke and painted marks and they...

I studied first at Hastings College of FE (Foundation year) then Canterbury College of Art.

I consider that my main art education began when I lived in Cyprus, after art school, and worked full-time as an artist, supporting myself from my artwork and doing portraits.

Life itself has been my biggest education!

I have exhibited many times, in London, Cyprus, Greece, Belarus, Latvia, Malaysia, China, Paris, and all over Kent .

2025 Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale, Dafen Museum, Shenzhen, China
The 20th Terrace Open, Patchworks.xyz, London 2024
2024 Fronteer gallery, Sheffield, 'Colour.'
2024 Tea and Friendship' Space in Hackney.
Linden Hall Studio gallery, Winter Group Show, 2023
The 3rd Dafen International Oil Painting Biennale, Red Cube Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, December 8th to January 7th 2023.
The 19th Asian Art Biennale, Shipakala Academy, Dhaka, December 8th to January 7th 2023. (3 paintings).
Linden Hall Studio gallery, Winter Group Show, Deal, Kent. 2023.
The 4th Qingdao International Art Exhibition, 1902 Art Museum, Qingdao city, China.
2022 Turner Contemporary gallery, Margate, Kent, OPEN, 23rd October 2021 to Feb 2022.
2021 WINTER GROUP SHOW at Linden Hall Studio gallery in Deal, Kent.
Exhibited: UK, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia (Mark Rothko Centre), China, Malaysia, and Paris (Louvre).

NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA, BEIJING:
Selected for the 6th/7th Beijing International Art Biennale, (September 2015/2017).

THE NEW MARK ROTHKO CENTRE, DAUGAVPILS, LATVIA:
The paintings I made at the new Mark Rothko Centre, (Daugavpils, Latvia) are now held in the permanent collection at the Mark Rothko Art Centre.

I showed regularly at the Llew...