Annabelle Roberts BA (Hons) Fine Art
When walking through overgrown, tree-clad areas, I’m fascinated by the entangled configurations of branches, the roots woven in the ground and the bustle of leaves. Nature acts as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, providing me with infinite varieties of forms and earthy hues that can galvanise my practice. I capture the natural environment in photographs, which function as mechanical aids as I transform organic matter into raw, dynamic strokes of paint. I establish energetic gestures, transforming my motions into marks, which maintain an activity of their own.
My practice is further guided by a curiosity of the brushstroke as an expression of the artist’s index. I aim to preserve a true, authentic portrayal of the gestural mark, which allows the viewer to read my body movements, and operations performed during the work’s emergence. Isabelle Graw describes the ability of such gestures to act as traces of the ‘absent author’. Therefore, the accentuation of brush marks establishes my existential status as the author of the work.
MAFA Award Winner
