Shelly Cook Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom
I am a self-taught artist who has always had a passion for art that has a deep rooted connection to nature and human emotion. My paintings are heavily textured and abstract. For the last few years I have exhibited my work virtually and locally . My work has also been featured in the book 'Women, Inspiring Quotes and Artistic Responses' & The Flux Review Edition 3.
For as long as I can remember I have been interested in details. Not the bigger picture but the finer intricacies, the colours and textures of life. I prefer to find beauty in the bark and lichen on a tree rather than the forest itself. The striations of a rock, the folds of fabric, the wrinkles of skin or the rust and the peeling paint on a weathered object.
Living in Cornwall for many years, my work is inspired by the textures and colours of its rugged coastline and landscape. Its geology and history. Cornwall is steeped in magic and myth. I believe in its magic, the intrinsic wonder and beauty of the natural world. With all of its cycles of life and death and transformation. The energy it raises and transmutes, forever changing. To me abstract art can represent this perfectly. It is alchemy for the soul and often healing for the mind.
The current mediums I work with are acrylics, texture pastes and reactive paints.
I tend to work spontaneously, laying down a texture without an idea of what it will become. It is only when I start adding the paint, and my current mood. as I am motivated by emotion, that it becomes a tangible thing.
My paintings are representations of my love of the natural world, the alchemical transformations of age and decay and it's connection to the human condition.