Award-winning Richmond artist Lucy Pittaway has unveiled a new collection which marks a major departure from the style for which she has become known.
The artist has produced six abstract works which she describes as her “most personal yet”.
Pittaway is best known for her colourful depictions of the Yorkshire Dales, Lake District and rural life, but the new collection moves away from recognisable landscapes and locations.
Instead, the works explore emotions including confusion, passion, excitement, anger, conflict and uncertainty.
The artist said the collection was created during a period of change and reflection in her life.
“This is not a collection inspired by place. It is a collection inspired by feeling,” she said.
“Each piece has been created during a period of change and reflection and all of them are incredibly personal.”
Pittaway said the project began with a desire to create something very different from her previous work.
“The collection is really a complete departure from anything I’ve created before,” she added.
“I had a real pull to create something that represented what was going on inside, something with no view, no place, no reference point.
“It was a kind of turmoil that needed somewhere to go. So I let it.”
Unlike her landscape work, Pittaway said the paintings were produced without sketches or a predetermined finished image, with the process instead guided by movement, colour and emotion.
“There was no plan for where each piece would end up. No sketch of a destination. Just paint, and me making the decision to keep going until something true came out the other side.”
Two themes run through the collection – what the artist describes as the “lightness of a feather” and the “heaviness of a storm”.
The six paintings are intended to represent changing emotions and difficult decisions, as well as the process of moving towards an uncertain destination.
Pittaway said the collection would give people familiar with her landscapes an opportunity to see a different side of her work.
“This isn’t the Lucy Pittaway you’re used to,” she said. “It’s the one underneath.”
The collection has been released as original artworks and limited-edition prints, as well as a small number of Artist Editions.
The works can be viewed online and at Lucy Pittaway galleries in Richmond, York, Yarm and Keswick.
