Hannah Webber

I’m a British portrait painter, using a semi-abstract approach to depict the human face. The abstract paint is driven by emotion; screaming neon spray paint layered under cool, thick, painterly acrylics, then tempered with drawing; realistic eyes gaze out from the abstract marks. The paint becomes the flesh and skin, mixing and churning in an honest show of the soul.

Influenced by the most intense but unspoken feelings, the work aims to convey the depths of human emotion. As a child, talking about how we felt never really happened, but art was my escape, a place where I couldn’t be wrong or afraid of its response. I paint because it allows me to say all the things I couldn't say as a child, and what I daren't say as an adult. The work fills all the depths of emotion where I lack the words, or perhaps the knowledge of how to put them together properly.

I trained in textiles as a weaver, with a BA (Hons) from
Winchester School of Art. I loved it, but later realised I loved painting even more. The textiles influence is definitely apparent in my current work - the colours are reminiscent of the bright silks I used to weave together, and, in a way, the weaves were paintings too.

LOVE Art, Leicester (group show) - overall winner, Nov 2020.
Open 33, (group show) Leicester Museum, Dec 2022.
Flora & Fauna, (group show) LCB Depot, Leics, Jun 2023
StudionAme Summer Exhibition (group show), Leics, Jun 2024