Jackie Philip: From Studio to Shore
8 - 31 October 2016
Working with raw pigment mixed with oil onto canvas, Jackie Philip paints with an immediate and direct approach, creating a rich tapestry of colour and luminosity of light. This solo exhibition, her first in Bath, features her latest paintings of still life and landscapes of the Scottish Inner Hebrides.
Jackie’s new paintings have a spontaneity which captures a moment in time: the essence of a place or the ephemeral colour of wildflowers recently gathered from the shoreline. Her subject matter is transformed by the intensity of her colour combinations, often juxtaposing or layering complimentary colours which she describes as creating a ‘sensory vibration’.
While living and painting in Edinburgh Jackie spends time traveling in search of new challenges & inspiration for her paintings. She has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including an Italian Government Scholarship where she spent a year immersed in the Tuscan landscape & the Tigh Alisdair Ruaraidh Residency which introduced her to the Hebridean Islands. Further afield, her travels have taken her to Asia where the colours & culture of the East have influenced her paintings and simplicity of composition.
The spontaneity and bravura of brushmarks in Jackie’s work owes something to the Scottish Colourists, but the strongest influence on her painting technique has been from the S.E. Asian lacquer paintings that she saw in Hanoi, which can use 200 thin layers of colour to achieve their intensity and luminosity. Jackie uses transparent glazes of raw pigment applied over the initial oil paint to combine a richness of colour and texture. While the starting point for her painting is a defined subject matter there is a large element of pure colour abstraction in the completed works.
“Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realising
one’s sensations”
Paul Cezanne
Jackie Philip, born in 1961 in Edinburgh, studied Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, at Wimbledon School of Art, London and at The Royal Academy Schools, London from 1978 - 1986. She attained a BA 1st Class Honours and MFA. Since completing her postgraduate studies, she has been painting full time as a professional artist and lectured in London, Florence and Auckland.
Jackie has exhibited abroad and in the UK and her paintings have attracted widespread attention and can be found in both corporate and private collections in the UK, Italy, Barbados, the Americas, Hong Kong and Australasia. She has held some 21 solo exhibitions as well as participating in many group exhibitions. Her work is regularly included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and the Paisley Art Institute.