In March 2021, I was included in an Emerging Artist prize at Creates Gallery in Monmouth, UK. One of the things I love most about these group exhibitions is the opportunity to discover new artists and build connections. Abstract artist, Anita Davies, had five works in the show. I found them compelling — to the extent that with little wall space at home I bought one of her paintings. In this focus on female artists, Anita describes how she developed her practice and what drives her to create.

“Making things has always been a part of my life, as has a love and interest in the natural world. During my childhood there was no television, learning seemed mainly didactic teaching with little discussion, and my existence kept very much inside the conventional box.  Colour always grabbed my attention, whether in the clothes, furnishings inside, the sky outside or illustrations in books it was a constant excitement.”                        

“Fast forward to 2008 when, now retired, I approached the local Art College wishing to take my painting forward; I loved the work of Nicholas De Staël. What joy and gratitude, for those amazing four years at University. Here I discovered the connection of Art to Life, the histories, perspectives through time, the joy of reading the experiences of others, developing critical thinking skills….

A book I really valued was Kandinsky’s ‘Concerning the Spiritual in Art’. Unexpectedly however, improving painting skills seemed a long way off…. It was the time of ‘conceptual art’.”

“In 2013 world news brought the beginning of the war in Syria and the exodus from their homes of millions of its people.  Working quickly in response to events I was grateful to have the expansive conceptual view of materials to work with; their inherent properties connecting the cotton bandage of the front line responders and the burnt matchsticks thrown away in disregard.

There is something about the unexpected use of materials that brings interest to a work and fed into the ideas being voiced that ‘painting was dead’.”

“During four years through to 2017 my perspectives on the world were on a roller coaster ride of emotions and learning. Letter exchanges with a pen friend on Death Row in Florida expanded my understandings in philosophy and the meaning of life, yet at the same time I experienced deep feelings of helplessness, great anger and heartache.

He was placed under an execution order and at that time I hung a paper chain out in a tree, over seven hundred links, the number of those on Death Row… exposed to the elements of weather and chance for nearly a year, a constant expression of ‘being beside’ him at this time.

August 2018 I was able to celebrate memories of his friendship with a large installation piece, supported by a group of friends in the exhibition ‘In the Middle of Somewhere’.                                                                                    

“So it was in the Autumn of 2018 letting go of existential concerns and anger…  I wished to explore an inner self, make a connection with the beauty of life, not through any conscious thought but being intuitive and unthinking.  By chance I was able to enrol on two on-line painting courses, Find Your Joy and the Creative Visionary Path. Experimenting in an abstract way to find where my personal mark making, composition and colour appreciation lies, has been an intense daily practice since.”                              

“The joy I find in this activity of exploration, meditation and magic, also supports the timeless quality of life in lockdown.  Expansive philosophical meanderings as I paint intuitively, brings me back to nature and the marvel that is life with all its un-predictabilities.  There is however a sense of slowing down, expanding awareness of the small things. Letting them speak reminds me to be aware of too much how of process, or too little clarity leaving an interested viewer perplexed, reminding me to find some sort of balance within this activity of constant contradictions, within a multitude of intentions.”

“This is not yet the end, nor is it a cliff hanger… comfortable with being in the present, the unknown, always the hope of making progress, and looking forward to the next new perspectives…”

Meet the Artist - Anita Davies

Anita Davies works as an artist on the edge of the Forest of Dean, England. With a love of the Impressionists and the American Expressionist Abstract painters, in 2012 (after retirement) she gained a Fine Art Honours Degree at University of Gloucestershire.

Her work has been shown in various exhibitions including the 2015 Open Summer Exhibition at the West of England Art Academy and at The Canwood Gallery in Herefordshire during the summer of 2018. Anita has been pre-selected for exhibition in Art in Penallt in summer 2021 (if COVID restrictions permit) and will participate in Far Open Art Trail’s open studios in July.

She is passionate about the connections art engenders with others and enjoys a love of nature, poetry and music… All bring her inspiration as she aims for her own genuine perspective on the world.

Website: http://www.anitadaviesarts.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/dymockarts/

See Anita’s work at Creates Gallery: https://www.createsgallery.com/emerging-artist-award-2021?category=Anita+Davies

Open Studio, July 2021: https://www.faropen.co.uk/artistsmakers.html