“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen
My work is about capturing the essence of a person or place rather than making a likeness. The unique gesturing of handwriting, the words that a person has spoken or written down are forever part of them and as individual as their fingerprints. The clothes worn and personal items have an imprint of that person. These, as well as the face and body have been one inspiration for my paintings.
I live and work in the seaside town of Whitstable in Kent, England. I stopped being a teacher in 2010 to concentrate on making my own work. Whitstable is a lively community of artists and the people and places are an inspiration to my work.
My daughter is a performer and musician and is often the subject of my paintings. I have recently been examining the masks both literal and metaphorical, that people and especially performers, wear. The act of painting, for me, is one of rumination. As a painting develops, the composition becomes rather like some of the stage sets that are in my paintings, arousing curiosity and inviting questions about what may have happened or what is about to begin. Different layer surfaces reveal the process of applied paint, which hold history, time and memory.
Education
MA Fine Art – CHrist Church University Canterbury
MA Education – Christ Church University Canterbury
MA History and Philosophy of Art, University of Kent
Exhibitions
Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable, February 2020
StagCafe, Solo Exhibition, August, 2019
Mile End Gallery End of year show ESOP, July 2019
Trinity Arts Centre, Tunbridge Wells, June 2019
Pumped Up and Popped Stephanie Brunton with Natalie Bennett, Canterbury, October – December 2017
Two of Us – with Colin Whitaker & Stephanie Brunton Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable, September 2016
Fish Lab – Fishslab Gallery, Whitstable, July 2016
Fishslab Collective group show – Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable, June 2016
Monday Art Group Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street, Whitstable, July 2016
Spring Show Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street, Whitstable, April / May 2016
Horsebridge Gallery, Whitstable, July 2014
Keams Yard, Whitstable, July / August 2014
Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street, Whitstable, April / May 2014
Espacio Gallery, Bethnal Green Road, London, April 2014
Show-Off Gallery, Harbour Street, Whitstable, March 2014
Fishslab Gallery, Oxford Street, Whitstable, August / September 2013
Show Off gallery in Harbour Street, Whitstable, October 2013
Artists Open Houses, No 17 on the Whitstable Trail, October / November 2013
stephanie brunton 