Artspace Residency Abigail May

I am a visual artist creating images of landscape and space using a mixture of media (pastel, watercolour and oil paint).

I use local landscapes as a starting point often working on-sight. The final pieces are worked up in the studio, many becoming more abstracted, and breaking down into simpler forms, emphasising colour and structure.

Colour is very important in my work; the changing colours of the natural world often become heightened in my work. Colour is used to define and differentiate the shapes within my work. I have been using colour to represent and explore emotions, extending this to work  with groups, designing a series of workshops that encouraged young people to express memories and emotions using abstract shapes and colours.  This led to the creation of a large scale collaborative work.

I have a long term interesting the industrial landscape; I worked on a series of images of boat yards in Bristol, on building sites and completed a series of drawings in an aluminium foundry.  In rural Yorkshire this has moved into an interest in capturing a landscape enclosed by walls and changed by mining.

Artspace Residency…

I continued my own exploration of printing as a starting point for painting. The work started with mono printing, painting directly onto acetate and then printing on paper or canvas, using acrylic,  the random nature of printing also encouraged experimentation and provided a great basis for continued work with paint, charcoal and pastel.

She used a mixture of images of the local rural landscape and images of the Leeds city skyline as visual inspiration for work that became increasingly abstract.

Working with Others…

All visitors to the Gallery were encouraged to engage both with the process of making work, the printing and painting, and with thoughts and questions that stimulate creative work.

Written by: Abi