Life Layers

Launch event: Friday 5th May 6-9 pm. Saturday 6th May 11am- 5pm. Thereafter by arrangement until May 27th. free

An exhibition of paintings by Pamela Woods.

‘I’ve been working in creative fields of one form or another all my life, moving regularly between science and art. I’ve moved from clothing design to plant science, landscape design to photography, painting to philosophy and back once more to painting.

Discovering new ideas is what I love, layer upon new layer of knowledge, watching how my thinking changes and how this affects the images I make. The making of abstract paintings for me involves a process of creating interacting layers.

It’s always a relief to experience working completely intuitively, sidestepping my rational mind. This happens when I make abstract paintings. I must work fast with the paints once they are mixed, and the canvas is in front of me. Rapid decisions about colours and shapes work best before I start thinking too much – then something unexpected can emerge.

Painting can be a tense process without predictable results. Eventually an image appears which touches me, and then I know it’s finished……, I then want to look at it again and again, wondering how it came about, travelling full circle and unravelling the layers.

I’m now having an unexpected dalliance with digital image making. I have reservations as to how well I can work intuitively digitally, but the essential layering process can be far safer and more controlled.

I’m loath to give meaning to my abstract images, I’d rather a viewer explore a picture with their own eyes and see how it feels to them.’