Stephanie Fawbert’s landscape paintings are, on the surface, nostalgic and timeless with their drenched colours and glowing light. There is a sense of an unfolding story within the work, that leads the viewer to their own narratives, memories and experiences. Each painting captures a moment, brought into sharp focus, yet what is happening is uncertain and the motives of the figures, that she always places in her landscapes, are ambiguous.

“I want these paintings to hint at possibilities, allowing the viewer to make their own interpretations of the works. I push the images towards what I am really interested in, namely how we humans interact with nature and the world around us.”

She loves painting water and for many years Fawbert was a watercolorist. This is apparent in her oil painting technique. She builds up paintings using thin washes and glazes of paint, often leaving drips and mingling colours as well as brush marks on the surface of the canvas. Using informal photographs as a starting point, she adapts images, changing the figures, the light, the colours and the composition to ‘alter the hierarchy’ within a painting.

There is a deep stillness to the images she creates, but also a sense that something is about to happen.

Sometimes magical, always lyrical, her paintings never drop into sentimentality, but leave us a little haunted by our own place within the world.

Stephanie studied Fine Art at Newcastle upon Tyne. She has exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and Glyndebourne and has paintings in collections in the USA, Germany, France, Sweden and Italy and the UK. This year she was shortlisted for the prestigious Jacksons Painting Prize for her painting ‘By the River’ which is in this exhibition and she was selected for A Generous Space 2 which is currently showing at The New Contemporary Art Gallery in Walsall.