Jessica Needham
The vibrant abstract paintings of Leicestershire artist Jessica Needham are inspired by her travels all over the world. She believes that all our life experiences are absorbed and that as an artist her role is to respond to them on canvas. “Every painting is a feeling, a reaction of what is going on in my mind. Some days are quiet but every day is a painting, a whole new perspective of looking at the world.”
Jessica’s most recent work explores the relationship between our minds and the deep hidden elements that sit under the surface. In particular, the colour Pink provides her with endless inspiration and also flowers; a beguiling metaphor for Jess’s own personal belief that beauty can emerge from the darkest of places.
Jess says, “It still amazes me how some of the darkest periods of my life have provided me create my work and in some ways have been able to ease the muddy path that is life for me and provide a more clear path. You will find gestural marks in all my work; the act a littler like a script when writing a novel, each mark provides structure and support as I add the colour. “She further explores the complex nature of habitat and identity found around the water in Japan drawn into the delicate pink pastels of the cherry blossoms.
Her natural talent and pure passion for painting has led Jessica to develop a profound and expressive style. She paints in water based mediums applied in confident brushstrokes to create a dense and textured finish. Her subject dictates the flow of the paint and with that, forms take on an element of the unreal, moving into the world of abstraction. Her compositions are characterised by vivid colours and bold, painterly textures.