Hello..
Great that you’ve found your way onto my site, welcome. I am in Wadebridge, North Cornwall, where I was born and brought up. All around here lies the stunning north coastline that so many love, with beaches like Daymer Bay and Polzeath.
I am constantly absorbed and ‘lifted’ by the beauty of our environment. I merely seek to appreciate and express this, rather than imitate. I want my paintings to give life to walls and hearts, that are in need of colour, vibrancy and life.
This is what being ‘creative’ is about – as well as sharing an appreciation of beauty.
About Jessica..( known as ‘Per’ )
Born in the heat of the summer of 1976, I was raised in beautiful Cornwall. Running wild and free on a farm with my sister where there were no rules. Hidden in the depths of a chest of drawers somewhere, lie endless drawings from my earliest days as a child. I carried a pad and drew anyone I came across…
At the age of 7, I encountered my first great teacher Janet, who inspired me through the art of perspective.
At 18, my desire to learn to properly ‘draw’ and pursue a career in fine art, led me to Florence, Italy, where I studied for 2 years at Charles Cecil’s atelier. This was devoted and serious study. I was not allowed to touch colour for a year.
I returned with confidence in my ability to paint life-like academic portraits, but still retaining my individual flare and passion for colour.
“Having painted various portraits over the years, I have gained a deeper understanding of the human face and human spirit. My mission is to find and portray the grace and beauty that extends much deeper than the skin on a person’s face.”
The colour work overlaps with the portraits in my understanding of colour, sensitive observation, and the courage to put colours next to each other with such certainty. Very few of the compositions are representational in any way. These paintings inevitably are almost entirely abstract.
The paintings are formed over months and years of questioning and sensitive observations, and an ever perfectionist and anyalytical eye. The result of each is in my mind’s eye well before even starting. It takes inevitable torment and effort to acheive the desired outcome. Whenever possible, I work from life, in ‘plein air’, insisting that the changeable light and atmosphere affect everything about the process of brush to paper.
The atmosphere and light are key – the way light can casually fall, even over just a rusty old pepper mill on the kitchen table! – even in that composition there is such subtle harmony and perfection.