27 February – 5 March 2021
“Almost the most pleasantest thing in the world is to be told a splendid story by a really nice person. There is not the least occasion for the story to be true; indeed I think the untrue stories are the best”…
Originally from Lancaster, Abigail completed her BA in Fine Art at Newcastle University in July 2019. Having attended a summer residency at the British School at Rome and awarded the Hatton Prize for outstanding degree show presentation, Abigail has recently begun her studies at the Royal College of Art, having been awarded The Basil H.Alkazzi Scholarship Award in Painting. Primarily focused with the process of oil painting, Abigail also works in other media such as Print making, Drawing, Photography and Film.
Originally from a working class rural background, this current, intensely urban living environment sees Abigail drawing on memories of place, family, and a longing for space. Interested in the notion of truth, trickery, the real and the fake, Abigail creates images drawing on her own experiences and memory, as well as art historical and literary sources. Exploring these avenues of inquiry, she seeks to create her own stories in a new type of narrative painting. Often drawing on myth and folklore from the north west of England, Abigail’s affiliation to place and home plays a strong role in the construction of her work. In turn, the images tell stories that may be neither true nor accurate, but that reflect a personal yet often archetypal narrative.
Abigail has a deep engagement with the materiality of oil paint and the way it can be manipulated, and the variety of tones and textures it can create. This interest sees her create complex layers of vibrant colour and pattern, using paint to conceal and then reveal past sections of a work–reflecting the layering of narrative while acknowledging the decision-making process of painting itself.
Currently living and working from her bedroom in Brixton, Abigail allows her practice to be influenced by the apparent constraints around her. Whilst still interested in ideas of truth and mockery, she is now using these lenses to consider the everyday, the mundane, and quotidian constructs.
ABOUT THE WORK:
The objects we use to tell stories; the props, the stages, the books, our voices, the people, the place, the puppets, the costumes, the masks and so on are just as important and telling as the stories themselves. Working as visual signs and symbols denoting what we are looking at.
This work “The Puppeteers” aims to explore the multiple layers of narrative and narrative perspectives, not only through imagery, but through the extensive layering of paint. Demonstrating perspectives in time, texture, point of view with both a fictitious fantastical space and a physical one.
See Abigail’s Instagram and Website
The Puppeteers
40 x 40 cm
Oil on canvas
SOLD
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