Emerging Artist Award 2021
My Sheltered Sanctuary
My Sheltered Sanctuary
60cm x 60cm
Acrylic on Canvas
At the start of lock down we all needed somewhere to retreat to. Here I would go for inspiration and a cwtch. There is something so welcoming about being amongst a landscape that has existed and maintained much of its identity throughout time. Just watching the repetitive nature of a gentle sea retreating and exposing more and more land was very soothing. I positioned myself in this scene at the point where I had to stay safe so as not to fall yet could still see the many routes forward and down to the beach.
Francine Davies
Inspired by the energetic feedback from natural environments I have felt compelled over time to find ways of expressing and sharing it through art. I am self taught and rely mostly on my background in Geography and Geology when I paint. I am fascinated with the movement of the sea, the feel of seawater and the positive benefits these environments hold for us. Furthermore, I am drawn to the textures and colours of the coastline and the impact of light and water on them. I spend considerable time in the sea and around our local coastline studying and experiencing my chosen subject. I strive to bring to my work a sensory element to help the viewer connect with a scene. Sometimes this is achieved through texture other times this is achieved through how I move the paint across the canvas.
I feel very much a novice at what I do yet quietly confident of my intentions when I am painting. I think it is this tension that adds a rawness to a scene that often surprises me. I get so much pleasure talking to people about how they feel about a painting and why they choose it. I love sitting and listening to them reminisce and interpret things that I could never have realised yet some how enabled through my work.