June Berry NEAC Hon RE RWA RWS finds her subject matter in her every day surroundings.
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Artist Statement
June finds her subject matter in her every day surroundings, either in a tiny hamlet in deepest rural France where she spends some months of the year, or in the streets and parks of South East London where she lives. The small events in people’s daily lives, often glimpsed in passing ... the elderly dog walker with equally elderly dog, the tree surgeon performing his ballet in the topmost branches, the French village housewife busy in her front garden full of vegetables ... provide moments of amusement, sympathy, amazement or simply delight which translate into oil paintings, watercolours and drawings.
Method of Working
All June’s paintings are made in the studio, where she is not distracted by reality. She finds it easier to select from information drawings made on the spot, photography, memory and experience and to include elements not there in reality. She is equally concerned with the abstract pattern that emerges as she paints, the blurring of vegetation into half seen patterns for example and the possibility of allowing the painting to take on a life of its own when new colour and compositional possibilities appear along the way. She works in oil on board, which allows the possibility of cropping, using only sable or nylon brushes and rags.