Deborah Stanhope Northumberland, United Kingdom

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I'm a British artist living and working in Northumberland. I make paintings on paper and sculptures in paper and wire. I studied art in London, initially at the Sir John Cass School of Art, and then at Central Saint Martin’s majoring in sculpture and drawing at the Royal College of Art.

My paintings move between figuration and abstraction, bringing to view the less conspicuous aspects of the human experience. Traces of past human existence and endeavour which thread into the present, as life cycles from generation to generation, is a central theme. This has a deep synergy with the rich history of my rural home, high on the Northumberland moors. Concealment and exposure, surface and subsurface are supporting themes. Paper as a medium is intrinsic to the subject matter as it is both robust and fragile, and spraypaint with its colouration challenges keeps the making keen and questioning. Approaching the work as a sculptor (my initial training), the dual processes of painting directly onto the base and attaching additional painted elements to this surface, resonate directly with both the medium and the subject.