Ghislaine Howard is an English painter whom I have admired for some time. Her drawings and paintings are bold and expressive and I love the way that she uses her materials so powerfully.
Although Ghislaine has done many landscapes, her work is primarily about the human figure.
Her maternity paintings are the ones I admire most personally, the portraits of her expectant self and the series she made as an artist in residence at the women's hospital in central Manchester in the 1990's. Here is a link to a gallery of these paintings on the artist's website;
http://ghislainehoward.com/art-paintings-drawings/the-human-condition/
Drawing seems to be at the core of everything she does and I love the expression she gives each mark - sweeping black lines that sometimes stand out and sometimes merge with colour.
These two images below are taken from an exhibition called 'The Choreography of Walking' which took place in the University of Salford in 2011. This work was done in conjunction with the university's Podiatry department and celebrates the simple act of walking.
( reproductions from Arts Development Team, University of Salford's photostream on Flickr )
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uniofsalfordartsdevelopment/5595367304/in/photostream/
I love the sense of movement in these paintings and the bold use of colour and line. I admire too the way that each gesture - line, brush stroke and smudge sits undisguised just as it was made. This brings the paintings alive for me because it is as much a celebration of the act of painting itself as it is of the subject matter.
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