Lucy Gow Northamptonshire, United Kingdom

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I am about to be a third year Fine Art Painting and Drawing student at Northampton University. I revel in exploring, unpicking, and going on a journey to see where the art takes me. When I paint and draw, I really do feel the work emanates from within and emerges, bursting forth. I embrace my gestural approach, and investigate large scale using oil, oil sticks, and water soluble crayons.

Inspiration has been derived from looking through windows either on a journey or from a building. The view is often obscured by rain drops on the glass, movement and perspective. Looking out into the outside expanse of the sky, hills, or sea is also a reminder of our smallness and magnitude of the world. There is a contrast between the juxtaposition of the manmade and nature. There is an exciting interplay that comes about through the subject matter in these “window” photographs. I explore these landscapes, feeling the topography and investigate the forms. I paint gesturally and intuitively with energy, impulse, and spontaneity. And, although I make sketches and experiment on cardboard and paper these are there to guide. I enjoy the freedom of the mark making, the viscosity, texture, and unctuousness of the paint, and getting lost and immersed in the flow of the moment. This makes the painting interesting – it is as much about the substance, as the subject matter and from the absorption of all the associated things from people, places, smells and emotions: the paint becomes the elements. I am not trying to replicate the coastline, roadside or garden scene, nor trying to depict identifiable landmarks and masses.