Artists Exhibiting At Our London Art Fair

Bio:

I'm J R Oatts - aka - Joanne Oatts, a UK-based abstract artist.

I have been painting ever since I can remember. I studied Art History at Middlesex University and have since attended Slade School of Fine Art and Central St Martins in London for further painting and illustration training.
I mainly work in acrylics - paint, spray, inks and acrylic mediums. My studio space is The Spider Studio, due to the fact that I have to share it will (probably) hundreds of spiders that reside in its dusty corners and rafters. They're quite the art critics.
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Currently living on the outskirts of London, I grew up by the sea in Essex, in south-east England. I love water and continue to be fascinated by horizons, the unseen, or the undiscovered.

I create colourful, vibrant and dramatic abstract art that explores unexpected connections between human emotion and patterns and shapes found in nature.

I’m interested in how we connect to each other and the universe around us. My aim is to encourage curiosity about what we perceive, what we know and how it makes us feel.

I plan my work in terms of colour, shape and form, but endeavour to maintain a sense of freedom in the mark-making. Broad visible brush strokes feature throughout. Whether the subject is powerful and dramatic, or quiet and serene. I love working with big brushes, palette knives, rollers, or anything that shows the interaction of materials in the painting and creates a tactile sensibility.

Since childhood, I've had a strong connection to water, and its power to be both a healer and a destroyer. This concept of duality plays out in much of my work. Not just in water, but in nature, weather, scientific theories, philosophy and life. Happy and sad. Black and white. Yin and Yang. Balance. Imbalance. Opposing forces. Different states of being. I try to embody these contrasts with colour or texture. Deep dark blues. Hot pink. Orange, reds, pinks. Bright splashes of yellow or green. Punky pop art hues vs deeper traditional tones. Soft against hard. Smooth against rough.

My inspirations come from many different places - but recently I've been looking at the work of Georgia O'Keeffe, Lee Krasner, Lyubov Popova, Wassily Kandinsky and Henri Matisse. I hope to match their shared ability to create bold art that provokes curiosity.