Meg Priestley North Yorkshire, United Kingdom

• 
• 
• 
• 

  Back to profiles Invite to apply

I’ve always been an abstract oil painter, I love the freedom it gives me. Recently my practice has taken inspiration from my new local landscape, transferring watercolour studies into abstract representations, but allowing how that particular landscape makes me feel when present. I don’t shy away from colour and use it as a driving force to start painting and communicate with the viewer.

My practice has recently taken a turn from painting large-scale abstract oil paintings, which has always been my focus and interest. However I’ve recently moved to a completely new area in North Yorkshire, this is somewhere I’ve been visiting my whole life to see family. I always took hundreds of photos of the beach and surrounding area. I decided to paint them one day and felt inspired to dig out the watercolours. I wasn’t intending to show these paintings. To my surprise, I enjoyed this new medium and subject. It provoked nostalgia providing me with a ground to express my sentimental connection with the landscape I know and love.

As an abstract painter, I’ve always approached a blank canvas with no clue in mind of how the painting will end up and recently I’ve enjoyed feeling inspired by something physically real. This has opened a new avenue for where my work could go. My practice has started to incorporate both methods which is exciting and has given me a new burst of inspiration and ideas. I like to sketch out my idea first in oil pastels, an idea taken from the landscape. Then translate that using bold colour and expressive marks on a large canvas. I don’t shy away from colour, this drives my practice, I enjoy experimenting with combinations and exaggerating what I see and feel. The marks, forms, and colour are an expression of the relationship between painting and self at that moment in time.

I have always been interested in abstract art and the freedom it gives me when painting. I don’t enjoy painting to a structured composition, I look for opportunities during painting that could take an unexpected turn, where the paint decides it’s going to behave in a way it naturally wants to. Actions that naturally may disrupt a painter's flow or strive for perfection are what I encourage and influence the next mark. I paint with oil paint on stretched canvas. This method gives me flexibility, I enjoy manipulating the paint, testing ideas, and mixing mediums to cause the paint to behave in different ways.

Recently I have been transferring my watercolour landscape paintings into abstract representations, but allowing how that particular landscape makes me feel when present in it to inspire its journey. For example, being on a quiet beach, and watching the waves is relaxing for me, makes me feel peaceful, and creates a sense of harmony and stillness within a busy world. In this instance I would be inclined to use harmonious colours to express what I felt and share its story with the viewers, making them feel how I felt when standing in the landscape.

I enjoy the anticipation and unknowing of how a painting will turn out. Expecting the painting to take any direction and allowing the paint to paint itself is an exciting journey because I never know when I can confidently say the painting is finished. I push the parallel between boundary and freedom. I paint from intuition, allowing marks and gestures to flow freely. I don’t shy away from colour and use it as a driving force to start painting, I enjoy experimenting with combinations and exaggerating what I see and feel. I use colour as a way to communicate with the viewer. The drive it gives me and the curiosity of what could happen, not having a second judgment before the action takes place is the essence and core of how I work.