Using pastels on paper Lorraine Fernie creates images of single female figures.
The emphasis on weight, mass and movement in space make it immediately obvious that she has worked as a sculptor.
These figures, created from her imagination, are monumental and tactile with enormous energy and their own inner life.
My training was in Bauhaus-type problem solving and abstraction along with traditional painting and drawing from life. My main interest has always been in making images of human beings.
After graduation I started to carve in wood. Some of these sculptures were also functional objects but all grew out of an interest in the human figure.
In 1985 I changed to working with clay because it is a wonderfully malleable material. I made free-standing pots and then sculptures but many of my works at this time were modeled in relief and made to hang on walls.
In 1997 to gain more control over the colours than is possible when using traditional glazing techniques I began to paint my fired figures with acrylic paint.
I have now returned to making two-dimensional work. These pictures are made with pencil, charcoal and pastels combined with lines which are incised into the surface of the paper. Starting from an initial idea or pose, I work and re-work each image changing the layout, and the balance of the forms to achieve a clear, human structure.
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