Zoe Brown

'Solitude'

Upper Gallery

22nd April - 15th June

Zoe Brown

I have always had a love of painting and considered art college after my A’levels, but financial constraints and a sense of responsibility led me to take the 'sensible' route and I became an R.E and life skills teacher, putting my painting to one side. The urge to be creative bubbled away under the surface, and in 2005 I left teaching. My husband and I sold up and shipped out to France for eight months, both to sample the wine and food, but mainly to find a fulfilling direction. Since then we have gone on to set up a handmade furniture business and have a family. And finally, without the constraints of a nine to five, (but working around two small children) I have been able to re-discover my passion for painting.

The time I spend painting is an indulgent release from the everyday.  A treat to look forward to, a compulsion to express a love of the powerful solitude of nature, and to capture the movement and essence of a single moment in time.  My career in teaching taught me to look at situations in life from alternative perspectives and this has influenced the type of image I try to portray. I determine to see things with different eyes.

Through the layering of the oil paint I build images that connect me with the endless facets that make up our surroundings. There is a tension between the chaos of complete freedom and the order of attention to detail, and I endeavor to find a balance between loose flowing brush strokes and concentrated focus on just a few details in each painting.