Words
Introduction
Throughout her long career, Debra Sweeney has drawn on the landscape and the figure to reveal hidden beauty, hidden truths.
Striping away the picturesque, the nostalgic, the familiar form is re-examined, redrawn, often exaggerated until it becomes an imaginary image of its self but still recognisable.
Work method
Debra works in situ, from the landscape or from the model, seeking a direct interaction with the subject in front of her.
Through a process of sketching and quick expressive marks she seeks the extraordinary in the ordinary.
An often humbling act, she searches to capture a line, a form, a colour, a composition, stripped of unnecessary detail.
Technique
Charcoal, pen, paint and collage is central to Debra’s technique.
Collage used in block form is assembled as shadow to describe the form and emphasise the drawn line.
Often using collage material from previous work, or making abstract pieces to then cut and recut can produce the unexpected, a serendipity and a memory of her own work.
The Audience
Debra hopes the viewer will see familiar landscapes and figures anew: stripped of detail the simple line and form is revealed.
She gives space to these on her canvas as celebrations of the rediscovered.
Pulling the viewer into the painting, the viewer becomes the artist in situ, and approaching the canvas, delicate textures and patterns emerge.
Influences
Asked for her influences, Debra refers to Richard Long for his sublime connection to the landscape, Agnes Martin for her innate simplicity and detail, Edward Steichen for his impeccable composition and Mary Delany for her invention of expertise with collage.
With her partner Stephen Neville, a potter, acquiring a studio in Portland, overlooking the sea has been a constant source of inspiration and creativity and that is where a lot of her coastal scenes come from.
