Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions

Solo – Nottingham University Nov-Dec 2004
Group – Chesterfield Dome May 2006
Group – Ingleby Gallery May 2007
Breath of Fresh Air – Derby Hospital Nov 07 – April 08
Deda Derby Nov 2007 – January 2008
Solo – Tregoning Gallery Derby May 2008
Solo – Over The Moon Gallery St.Agnes June 2008
Summer Exhibition Belgravia Gallery London 2008
Rising Stars Belgravia Gallery London Sept – Oct 2008
Survey Exhibition Gallerytop Chatsworth April 2009
Remembered Landscapes Solo – Derby Museum and Art Gallery April – June 2009
Abstract Show Belgravia Gallery June 2009
Derby Super Hospital Autumn 2009
The Cube Solo show Deda Nov 2009 – Jan 2010
Solo New Court Gallery Repton School April 2010
Solo Tarpey Gallery Derbyshire September 2010

Public Commissions

Series of 12 paintings for Derby Homes October 2006

Publications

April 2009 Featured artist Derbyshire Life magazine
May 2010 Featured artist Art of England magazine

Collections

Heather’s work is in many private collections in the UK, France, Germany and the USA

Artist Statement

I am a Debyshire based painter based in my home village in the south of the Peak District.

I take my inspirations from my everyday life, from landscape, music and poetry, and from memories. Each painting is drawn from a stream of consciousness, often starting in landscape but moving away from representation and becoming more abstract and expressive. I have a consistent starting point, in the free covering of the white canvas with washes of colour, and it is from this beginning that I begin to read or project images intuitively – these then govern the direction of the painting; experiences and observations become filtered and developed upon the picture plane over time.

I have a deep and strong connection with the expansive open moorlands of the north of England where I spent my childhood. This openness into which I escaped both physically and emotionally is reflected in my work. I like the varied climatic qualities of a temperate landscape, the mood and the music that it creates within us and of itself. I find a calm beauty in the grey mist of an October morning, excitement in the gunmetal sky of an approaching summer storm. I love the sharpness of the wind as it assaults your face, or the gentleness of a salt-laden sea breeze.

I approach each piece in an open and intuitive way, yet I balance the spontaneity with controlled and considered choices of colour, gesture and mark-making. Each piece invites free interpretation from the viewer, and yet each is a highly personal and emotive response to experiences (within landscapes) that I have had. I grew up in a working class family in Northern England. Yet we had two small books on paintings, and I was hooked….. A defining moment was the first time I went into the National Gallery as a young teenager and saw some of the paintings from the books, they suddenly became real, and vital. I have spent the last 7-8 years committed to painting seriously, as a professional Artist, but over 30 years knowing that it was all I wanted to do.