Zoe Ashbrook
Zoë’s multi-disciplinary practice is anchored in observations of time, landscape, nature and memory.
“As I become increasingly absorbed in the landscape around me, I’ll pause to capture and document transient interactions between light and shade, textures, lines and marks. Through the slowness of mindful drawing combined with quick expressions of intuitive mark making I respond to sensory explorations of the passage of time observed within landscape and nature, deepening my felt experience and sense of connection to place.
Observations are reinforced through photography, video and audio recordings. Episodes of experience that serve as a catalyst to an increased sensory awareness and conscious shift in my emotional and physical state of being.”
In the studio Zoë’s intuitive approach provides a meditative space to reflect upon her observations. Concepts of entwined histories of time embedded within landscape are combined with memories of ‘noticing’ the phenomena of sensory details and textures of place.
Paintings evolve with a visual language evocative of the passage of time. Through a process of repetition and layering where addition and subtraction play an equally significant role in the search for balance between abstraction and the representational, and the notions of time, memory and landscape explored are both conceptual and tangible. Zoë’s process rewards the viewer with a rich tapestry of deeply layered, often luminous spaces, obscuring and highlighting a nuance of mark making and subtle, graduating shifts of colour.
While some paintings appear perhaps as depictions of ‘somewhere’ others offer a glimpse into a more personal moment of observation. Aspiring to evoke within the viewer a reason to pause, Zoë invites us to spend time with the work, allowing a slow reveal and quiet recognition of the expressions of time and memory embedded within the work and our everyday experiences of the landscapes we engage with.