Sophie Parr
biography
Sophie is inspired by the landscape; she uses it to trigger ideas, forms and structures. Her paintings are not direct representations but an attempt to represent the feeling of being there; the movement, the elements, the textures and colours.
Sophie’s relationship with the landscape stems from growing up in rural Cheshire. As a young art student she would retrace some of her favourite walks, observing and trying to discover what interested her and how to portray it. After achieving a BA(Hons) Fine Art she became a secondary school teacher.
In recent years she has devoted more time as a practicing artist. Initially painting seascapes developed from sketches/studies that she produced on family holidays in Cornwall. Becoming interested in the relationship between water and the land, finding the dramatic nature of the sea and the continually changing beach surface exciting.
She then looked closer to home, working from her local landscape, in particular the Sandstone Trail.
She uses photographs to help compose and try different viewpoints. Mark making, textures, layers and colour are still her preoccupation. She often uses a square format so that she can focus on the textures in the foreground.
Lockdown meant that access to the landscape was restricted and she developed a body of work inspired by the hedgerows close to home. She observed the small subtle changes through the seasons, noticing the beauty, energy and qualities of what is easily overlooked.
Her work currently is about trying to portray the emotional connection with the landscape, through mark making, colour and viewpoint. Her battle with getting the right balance (in her mind) between realism and abstraction in order to achieve a sense of place is an important element of achieving a successful outcome.
