Henrietta Loades-Carter

Artist statement:

I think I’m just one big expressive juxtaposition… with paint or whatever. I love colour, line,  movement but then also little details other people don’t notice. I love quirkiness and creating my own worlds. Story telling is a new thing since lockdown. I love found objects and photography and mood. Projection. Music is a big influence and so is inspiring others. Isolation has given me a new resilience.

Work statement:

Isolation in the UK was such a shock to the system.

Isolation has made me think for good or for bad. It has made me realise who my friends are and how important connection is between creatives.

After the first two weeks of Isolation and worry about my parents I realised the only way I was going to get through this was to paint my feelings. My mediums of choice were pastel and oil for their immediacy and expressionist qualities, but I started small unsure this was going to work. Encouraged by an ig friend I continued to explore these feelings of entrapment, sadness, worry, what the future held, the endlessness of it, and it even started to bring up hidden feelings from my childhood of feeling small and insignificant. With these feelings in mind I found images from family photos, and also photos of myself and my children posed for my paintings. In this way I found I could portray the emotions I felt. Here are two examples but I painted a whole exhibitions worth of work this spring and summer. It’s just getting me though and I think it will have to again…

Out of the chaos comes beauty and connection and kindness.

Henrietta Loades-Carter, Sept 2020

Links to websites and Instagram