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Shaped

My earliest shaped pieces were made in the late eighties in Poland. In part, a reaction to the academic restraint prevalent in the Art Academy in Gdansk, in part due to a shortage of conventional materials, I created a series of large floor collages using anything to hand. Working with swathes of collected papers, tins of tile glue and household stains, varnishes and paints, the compositions

 

spilled over their outer frames. The next series of shaped pieces were made in 1991 in Budapest. Adding a sturdiness to the shaped edges of the paintings, I did them on corrugated card-board. It was twenty years before I returned to making shaped paintings. Most on view on this site are from the later period of 2013 onwards.

  • Two-more-than-one

  • Mixed Bag

    A bag of sweets? Online dating? - All a mixed bag.

  • Quatre Saisons

    This collage incorporates sections of an old poster advertising a concert of Vivladi’s Quatre Saisons.

  • Les Trois Tantes

    My version of a beautiful large portrait painting of three women, painted in Whistler-like greys and whites.

  • Blue Icon

    The base layer of this painting is a deconstructed pastel and ink collage I did in Gdańsk in 1988 called Birdie Break-out. The shape is reminiscent of the icons I saw trawling the churches of Poland and Russia in the early nineties.

  • Hommage à Braque

    Reminiscent of later work by Georges Braque - his post Cubism paintings and collages.

  • Cherry Moons

    Cherry. Moons.

  • Honesty Box

    Heavily worked and detailed, overlaid with gold pastel and paint.

  • Tipple

    This piece is the first of the diptych Tipple and Topple. Both came out of a revisited  2005 painting called Sweet Shop. Deconstructed, reconstructed and overpainted, they illustrate a playfulness characteristic of much of my work.

  • Topple

    This piece is the partner toTipple. Both came out of a revisited  2005 painting called Sweet Shop. Deconstructed, reconstructed and overpainted, they illustrate a playfulness characteristic of much of my work.

  • Duped

    The base layer of this painting is entirely made up of maps of Africa. Just one tiny piece is taken from another continent.

  • Thanks to You, Martin B

    This used to be a vertical painting, the earlier version being Zaspa Flats, painted in 1999 in Poland. Returning to the piece in sunnier Devon, I first turned it on its side, then coated it in Cerulean Blue, stencilling out half-circle shapes. Thanks to You, Martin B is an acknowledgement to Martin Bedford, friend and artist who loved the colour!

  • Dreams of Spring

    Scottish winters, when do they end? …. A reference also to the rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. This is the first half of the diptych with Rites of Spring.

  • Rites of Spring

    A celebration of a long-awaited glimpse of spring in Scotland. …. And reference to the rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. This is the second part of the diptych with Dreams of Spring.

  • Eszther’s ‘Life of a Fish’

    My Hungarian friend Eszther named this painting.

  • Stone Circles

    Stone-like colours emanating from faded paper layers; rough textures and patterns from a base of corrugated card.

  • Fooling the Bird

Workshops for Everyone

I work with individuals and groups of up to 30. My aim is to deliver a fun and stimulating environment in which experimentation and expression is maximised.
Sara Downham Lotto