Stephanie Brunton

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen
My work is about capturing the essence of a person or place rather than making a likeness. The unique gesturing of handwriting, the words that a person has spoken or written down are forever part of them and as individual as their fingerprints. The clothes worn and personal items have an imprint of that person. These, as well as the face and body have been one inspiration for my paintings.
I live and work in the seaside town of Whitstable in Kent, England. I stopped being a teacher in 2010 to concentrate on making my own work. Whitstable is a lively community of artists and the people and places are an inspiration to my work.
My daughter is a performer and musician and is often the subject of my paintings. I have recently been examining the masks both literal and metaphorical, that people and especially performers, wear. The act of painting, for me, is one of rumination. As a painting develops, the composition becomes rather like some of the stage sets that are in my paintings, arousing curiosity and inviting questions about what may have happened or what is about to begin. Different layer surfaces reveal the process of applied p...

MA Fine Art - CHrist Church University Canterbury
MA Education - Christ Church University Canterbury
MA History and Philosophy of Art, University of Kent.

Horsebridge Centre Whitstable, November 2022
Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable. February 2020
StagCafe August 2019 Solo Exhibition
Mile End Gallery End of year show ESOP July 2019
Trinity Arts Centre Tunbridge Wells June 2019
Pumped Up and Popped Stephanie Brunton with Natalie Bennett October 2017 - December 23rd 2017 12 Butchery Lane, Canterbury.
Two of Us - with Colin Whitaker & Stephanie Brunton Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable September 21st - 28th 2016
Fish Lab - Fishslab Gallery Whitstable July 13th - July 19th 2016
Fishslab Collective group show - Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable June 2016
Monday Art Group Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street Whitstable 13th July - 21st July 2016
Spring Show Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street Whitstable April 29th - May 5th 2016.
Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable, July 2014
Keams Yard, Whitstable 30th July - 13th August 2014
Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street, Whitstable Kent April 30th - May 6th 2014
Espacio Gallery, Bethnal Green Road, London April 2nd - 8th 2014
Show-Off Gallery, Harbour Street, Whitstable Kent. March 2014
Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street, Whitstable Kent 28th August - 3rd September 2013.
Show Off gallery in Harbour Street, Whitstable October 16th - 22nd 2013.
Artists Open Houses, 19th/...