Biography
Olwen Williams is a painter. She achieved a First Class Honours degree in Fine Art in 2004 and her M.A. in 2006, studying at the University of Sunderland. Her work is mainly concerned with the human face and figure. The personal life, the internal life, so briefly visible in expression or posture, is the focus of her work whether in a commissioned portrait or a created composition.She has sucessfully completed commissions for portraits, landscapes and for large work on religious themes. Further work can be seen at www.edan.org.uk.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
"I find writing about my work difficult because painting is a wordless language and if my intention is not visible in a painting then no amount of words will replace it.
The portrait series isolates the inner features of the face. It is these that we address when in conversation, looking for an empathic response. These isolated features, revealing an evident personality are intended to draw the viewer into a silent intellectual and emotional conversation.They begin as drawings to research how much of the inner life can be revealed while respecting the outer appearance.
Sometimes this work leads to large paintings of a clearly spiritual nature, such as the Pieta which was installed in Durham Cathedral during Lent. A Crucifixion and Nativity have been gifted to the Parish Church of Whitburn in South Tyneside. The great Christian feasts often provoke new work.
Current work is centred on dancers. I admire their ability to fuse their intellectual, emotional and physical life into wordless expression. I make many drawings of dancers, often during rehearsals, and sometimes use recorded material after a performance has been observed. This preparatory work allows for the deconstruction of the continuous movements of the dancer into a fluid form where the painting can move equally fluidly between figuration and abstraction.
This work complements the continuing study of the human face where it is quiescent moments rather than motion that reveal private concerns. The intention of my work is to reveal the personal life, the invisible life, so briefly visible in expression and posture."
Olwen M. Williams
2009
