Karen Brighton

City Crowds Signed oil on baord 27 x 31 inches Price £1500.00	City Street VI Signed oil on board 27 x 23 inches Price £1300.00	Wet afternoon Signed oil on canvas 26 x 20 inches Price £950.00

The original ideas for my paintings came after a busy period of working in London (and visiting New York), and being involved in city life. I loved watching the crowds in the city streets. My view is as if through the lens of a camera compressing the image as a way of understanding something very contemporary about the visual world.

My paintings capture the nature of city crowds depicting the rhythm of people going 'to and fro', exploring the dynamics of individual people and their relationship to the anonymous urban crowds. I try to express the mystery of figures congregating and the infringement on personal space.

The spatial organisation of the paintings is determined by combining the figures or by separating them into 'private' spaces. I add isolated marks to indicate individual figures to balance the overall image on the canvas. I often use a square format as this stretches the vertical and the horizontal from an aerial point of view. Creating aerial space and depth in my paintings is important as it gives a feeling not only of the immensity of the crowd but the way the image moves.

With the use of colour I have tried to reflect the reality of city images; often very little colour, it could be winter on the city streets in some paintings, or early morning sunlight in others. Figures stand out from the darkness, still recognisable but sometimes barely discernible. I view from above, and my latest work shows distorted images viewed through glass and rain. I use oil and mixed media, often applying the paint with rags, working the paint across the canvas, scratching and rubbing into it, leaving surface traces of physical movement and energy.

Influences:- artists/poets who have been interested in the freedom in the city and in the anonymity of the crowd. Hamilton, Pissarro, Kircher, Beckmann, Baudelaire, Lowry.