About.
Shirley Kirkcaldy [SWAc] is a professional landscape painter based on Dartmoor in Devon, whose work is deeply rooted in the wild moorlands and rugged coastlines of Devon and Cornwall. Emotionally charged, her expressive paintings in oil and mixed media capture the spirit of these locations, combining distinctive painting techniques, mark making, colour and texture.
Driven by an intuitive desire to reveal the light and space of the natural landscape, her paintings are not just visual records but interpretive responses.
Shirley exhibits nationally and her work is held in private collections in the UK, USA, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. She is an elected Academician with the South West Academy of Fine & Applied Arts (SWAc), teaches a variety of workshops and paints full time in her Dartmoor studio.
For those who want the details you can find Shirley’s biography and exhibition list here,
Statement.
“Memories are woven into a landscape and mine are of a childhood spent by the sea in Devon. Now living and working on Dartmoor and drawing inspiration from the moorlands and coastlines of the South West, each change of season offers an opportunity for me to explore their beauty and remoteness.
Dominated by a sense of place and synonymous with light and atmosphere, paintings are rich in personal responses which tell a story to convey the spirit of the natural landscape. Final images are searching for something more than the obvious, overriding the need for direct representation as they move from documentary to anonymity; ambiguous whilst capturing an authenticity borne of a specific location. Thus, I am inviting the viewer to bring their own understanding of the space whilst still conveying a personal significance.
Sketching and drawing in the landscape allows me to respond to what I see in its contours, intangible spaces and fractured light, and these studies later inform paintings back in my studio. Working on a number of pieces simultaneously, I layer texture and colour to evoke atmosphere and emotion, scratching and scraping back into the paint to reveal what lies beneath – much like the landscape itself”.