ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a figurative painter creating tightly cropped, bold compositions that focus on fabric and the figure, finding inspiration in contemporary fashion and art history. My process involves working with a model to provide drawings and photographs as source material, while my paintings explore how gesture, colour and composition can capture the most vivacious qualities of the fabric as well as the attitude of the body.

In 2024 I moved from working in acrylics to oils and am finding new subtlety in this medium, exploring how fabric and skin can find equivalence in paint, deepening my knowledge of colour and technique to make this rendering more sophisticated and powerful. By painting on canvas and at a larger scale, I find the more expansive movements required to explain the contours of figure and cloth are leading in new and inspiring directions. 

BIOGRAPHY

Fiona divides her time between Brighton, UK and Emila Romagna, Italy.

In London, after a Contemporary Dance and Choreography BA, she spent ten years in broadcast television, as a Picture Editor and Presentation Director.

Moving to Brighton in 1998 she studied Garden Design and History, working as a freelance Garden Designer for four years. A passion for the drawing element in this work led to a pupillage with painter Nick Bodimeade.

An MA in Art and Design, at Brighton University making short films allowed her to explore her diverse skills and experience, bringing together dance, photography, moving-image, design, drawing and adding motion-graphics. She achieved a distinction and spent twelve years making fine art and commercial short films. ‘Wallpaper’ featured in the BFI film festival 2011.

Fiona’s painting career developed alongside this, painting in acrylics, the clothed figure as her focal subject.

A highlight of 2023 was being selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show.
Since 2024 Fiona has been studying at the Essential School of Painting, now working in oil paint on canvas at a larger scale, while elevating her technical skills and ambitions.

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