I am Penny Lindop; I create loose expressive semi abstract paintings in both watercolour and mixed media, inspired by my local valley fen landscape, flowers and natural forms.
The small elements in nature, the flowing grasses, the tiny wild flowers on their delicate stems, the stones, pebbles, lost feathers and fallen twigs draw me in, and it is these that inform much of my work. It was the small details that were important to me as an archaeologist years ago, and now it’s the snippets of memories and detail that pull me in.
I work in both watercolour and mixed media (acrylics, graphite, crayons….). Working in watercolour and ink is like a gentle calming meditation for me, with time spent watching the pigments flow into each other and then drawing into the colour with Indian ink using a stick, feather or dip pen. Gentle excitement when the ink does something magical on the paper.
Mixed media, on the other hand, is a more energetic way of working for me; bold sweeping brush marks energise and excite me; scratching through the wet paint is a joyful experience, discovering what lies beneath.
Gradually I’m learning to work in layers and excavate through to lower layers to see what has been hidden, just like excavating an archaeological site. Thrilling sometimes, and very taxing at other times!
Based on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, with the beautiful and inspiring valley fens on my doorstep, this is a landscape I have come to love. It’s a landscape that inspires my painting; I try to capture the birdsong and the tall reeds rustling in the wind, together with the open space that this environment offers.
My current work centres around flowers; I am exploring ideas of fading away, both of the flowers themselves, but also the fading of our memories, and the loss of detail over centuries of time. I don’t have a plan of where this could go and am enjoying seeing where it is going at the moment.
