Angela is an artist and printmaker who works predominantly in soft pastel, whether painting, printing, collaging or paper making.
Originally from London, New York has been her home for the last thirteen years, with a recent break of eighteen months spent in Tokyo.
Her evolution has been influenced by living in and experiencing different cultures, which have offered up a visual and emotional dimension to her work. As an onlooker, she has observed in each, the routines and customs that provide a structure for day to day interactions and our need for connection.
"I move slowly in the studio, so that ideas can free-float. There is a rhythm and pace here that enables me to feel my way around a painting. With a sensibility rather than an single idea, I'll begin painting so that randomness and equilibrium work along side each other. My working process is an explorative, intuitive mix borrowed from several disciplines, combining and alternating pastel with print or collage.
My information comes from careful observation, from reflecting on a familiar scene and drawing a narrative from it. The scenes are not staged but usually stumbled upon, perhaps a friend's window sill, kitchen table or a glimpse of two people engaged in conversation. It is the overlooked aspects of everyday life that draw me in, a stolen glance of another's day to day and the rhythm of routine that we all share.
My experience in Japan is evident in my more recent work. Prompted by curiosity and a need to adapt to a different culture, I tentatively explore the surrounding new, in contrast with older recollections. I place a beloved cup next to a chicken wire lantern, unearthed at a Japanese flea market, and a new conversation begins. It's about absorbing change and finding a way through, using the spaces in between. The resolution comes in recognizing when a balance is found and there is a connection between the contrary: the new and old, the unfamiliar and familiar.
I gather my visual language from the grace of everyday ordinariness, private worlds, unguarded moments, the unsaid - the trace of human presence. I paint what makes me curious and seek to render the truest emotional response that made me first stop and take note." Angela A'Court
COLLECTIONS
SEFA Gallery, NYC
The Stour Gallery, London UK
Lori and Christopher Rothko, NYC
Private collections, EU, UK, US
COMMISSIONS
Beaconsfield - East Ward, Hillingdon Hospital, London,UK
Private Residence, Tribeca, NYC, US
AWARDS
Pastel Journal 100, 2015
Art in Site: Building Better Healthcare, London UK, 2015
Daler-Rowney, Annual Pastel Society, London UK, 2014
Elected to UK Pastel Society 2009
Arts Club, London UK, 2005
WORK EXPERIENCE
Visual Arts Teacher, Stephen Gaynor School, NYC, 2010-2015
Guest Lecturer, Brody Studios/Unison Pastels, Budapest, Hungary, Winter 2013
Guest Teacher, Unison Pastels, Northumberland UK, Summer 2012
Interior Designer, A'Court Design, London UK, 1990 - 2000
Interior Designer, Finch Ward Associates, London UK,1986 - 1990
EDUCATION
Goldsmiths, University of London UK, BA Honors Textile Fine Arts
West Surrey College of Art and Design UK, Diploma Foundations Fine Arts
Parsons School of Art and Design NYC, Fine Arts Drawing