British contemporary artist Kerr Ashmore, better known for her immersive abstract landscapes, is soon to show her debut exhibition at Hancock Gallery and we could not be more delighted.
Inspired by land, sea and sky, Kerr often reflects unseen emotion and memory in tandem with the actuality of nature within a landscape to create powerful imagery that offers a vague familiarity. Often in large scale, Kerr’s work consistently presents beautifully aesthetic and emotionally evocative imagery. It's no wonder she's one of the female abstract landscape artists we're loving right now.
The well-exhibited artist has shown both collaboratively and solo around the globe, and is held in multiple international private collections. The artist regularly travels between her home in the North East of England and her Southern Spanish studio, drawing on the intricate medley of stark contrast and bewildering similarities of the two landscapes.
“Growing up in North Yorkshire, so close to the Moors and the cold North Sea, I was surrounded by beauty and inspiration. I will be forever mesmerised by the ever-changing movement of light and dark that can so drastically change the natural landscape and my own emotional response to it.”
Kerr’s somewhat restrictive approach to portraying her landscapes captures the perfect balance between the known and the unknown, summoning a powerful emotional response in the viewer, as though drawing upon their own memory of experience.
The artist has worked for years perfecting this technique, often collecting moments and experiences, incorporating fragments of different sea, sky and land from different landscapes and joining them together in a flurry of energetic response to her own emotional experience. In fact, the artist heavily relies on her emotions to compose her pieces.
“I store [my emotional experiences] inside until they resurface during my writing and painting process, it is emotive and highly energised… I allow emotion to take over, I move fast and for long periods until I feel the piece has a need for rest and further contemplation. When I feel I’ve listened enough, I continue until the piece tells me it is finished.”
This almost sporadic or erratic method of working incorporates both the calm and the storm, which can be clearly observed on the canvas. Whether it’s the depth of the rich colours or the juxtaposed understandable yet alienating abstract, Kerr’s romanticism with nature and expressive technique of allowing emotion to drive the brush to the canvas is evident in the incredible work she creates.
Kerr Ashmore’s preview at Hancock Gallery will be held on Friday 28th October from 5pm to 8pm. Join us to experience the sheer magnitude of her emotive works, and to meet the artist for a first hand insight into her creative mind and practice.
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