The Artist
Lucy Burscough
actually studied sculpture at Manchester Metropolitan University
but went on to concentrate on painting and portraiture after her
first painting was used by the National Portrait Gallery to publicise
their BP Portrait Award.
A local painter,
Lucy juggles, fragments and muddles the face to reveal how the
mind inherently seeks order and rationalises space.
Images become
cutups, jigsaws, tessellating canvases and interactive puzzles
some of which the viewer can engage with physically and arrange
to fit their particular visual desires for the day. Lucy says:
"Thus,
originally realist paintings are given the opportunity to transmogrify
into abstract works, and different aspects of the image can
have greater or lesser emphasis according to the composition
selected by the viewer."
The viewer
is offered an opportunity to play with the art and become participants
in the creative process in a manner that is usually impossible
within Burscough's chosen medium of oil painting.
Lucy invites
the viewer to mess their heads up. Burscough's website also includes
some of her more classically constructed portraits in oils on
canvas.
In this more
traditional form Lucy's use of diverting composition lends a particular
appeal to personal portraits. In her portraits of children she
tends to avoid the kitsch of traditional family portraits whilst
still representing the personality of the sitters.
Lucy has exhibited
widely in the north west, in London and Italy and has been shortlisted
for a number of portraiture awards. Her portrait subjects have
included the late, great John Peel, Lord Melvyn Bragg and Jon
Snow of Channel 4 News.
Lucy works
as a model-maker at Chorlton's Cosgrove Hall Films, a well
respected Mancunian institution where DangerMouse, Chorlton
and the Wheelies amongst other greats were produced. Burscough
currently makes Postman Pat's sacks.
Her portrait
of Matt and Phred's regular double-bassist Jon Thorne is featured
on the album, "Manchester Road" by Jon Thorne's
Oedipus Complex which was released on EGEA records in May 2006.
Lucy can be
contacted by email at:
lucyburscough@hotmail.com
More of her
work can be seen on the website at:
www.lucysart.co.uk
