CV & Events
Artist's Statement
"I'm fascinated by colour, light, and paint itself. In the last few years, I've enjoyed using my intuition to paint, just as much as observing the subtle changes of shape and colour as light shifts over a subject. I enjoy a feeling of mystery as I paint, a sort of not knowing what will appear and I feel that there’s a spiritual element in my landscape work. With still-life painting, there is often a relationship or element of humour which appeals to the illustrator in me.
Sometimes my paintings are bold and intuitive; at others, quiet and observed, very much like I am as a person. I’m uncovering what I find exciting to see and make. That could be portraying the way light falls around a small still life in a variety of ways; or the feeling of a wild freedom with the adventure of painting a landscape from imagination and memory. There is an energy of attempting to make the invisible visible in my work. Light always affects colour and form; so most of the time I find myself exploring this whether I am working from life or not.
My work is about exploration and discovery in many ways.
I paint to feel adventurous and connected to something beyond me. My practice is a quest for the feeling of freedom and joy that painting at its best, can give you. It’s not always in the dramatic paintings, sometimes it’s in the flow of the instinctive paint colour choices I make, or achieving the exact colour of light on the curve of a bowl and the elusive way the best paintings seem to make a surprise appearance."
Events
2024
November - 15th-17th Manchester Art Fair - visit me on stand 850
June - Exhibiting at the Drift Gallery, Nantwich
May - Open Studios Saturday 25th May 2024 - Sunday 2nd June 2024. Details to follow.
Longlisted for the Jackson's Art Prize with painting : The Blue Table
March - Still Moments Group Show - The Sanctuary Gallery - Newnham, Gloucestershire
January - The Point Contemporary joint showing with Richard K Blades - ongoing
2023
November - Manchester Art Fair Nov 16th - PV 5pm - 9pm, Nov 18th 10am- 6pm, Nov 19th - visit me on stand 721
October - Exhibiting at Cambridge Contemporary Art, 6 Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1SU - Focus on Ceramics, 30 Sept – 22 October
September - four paintings are currently showing at the Lilford Gallery, Canterbury
July - The Three Summer Show - joint exhibition at The Ballroom, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 12 July - 18 July
June - 3/4th June -North Norfolk Open Studios
- Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - mid June until Sept 2023; 2 paintings shown and a print and greeting card were
published for the RA shop
May - Open Studios - Saturday 27th May to Sunday 4th June 2023 - my opening times tbc
March - Shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Feb launched the beta round of the Self-Paced version of Experimental Still Life - my 8-module art programme
Jan - new collection of small abstracts called Quiet Arrival
2022
Dec 1/2/3/4th - Norwich Art Fair
Nov 4/5/6th - Manchester Art Fair - stand no. 307
Oct - Open Studios - 2 weekends - 1/2 and 8/9
May - July 1st Experimental Still Life 2023 - I took 48 students through a 2 month live art course
March - 4th -6th - Contemporary Art Fairs - Surrey (Spring) - stand 10
Feb - new collection Sonder released; now sold
Jan - 4th - 31st devised and delivered Ignite Your Art an online art programme
- preselected for the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2022
2021
December Art Fair East - Norwich - 2nd-5th
October 10-5pm 2nd/ 3rd/ 6th/ 9th/ 10th - Norfolk Open Studios
October - Art & in York - CANCELLED
Sep - selected for the Mall Gallery prize Figurative Art Now
July - selected for the Holt Festival Art Prize where my work was shown at the Adrian Hill Gallery, Holt
June - I launched Experimental Still LIfe - an on-line 8 week art programme over the summer
April - subscriber-only art sale
Jan/Feb - online art event with 10% of sales going to the charity The Benjamin Foundation
2020
February - online auction
May - Landmark Arts Trust in Teddington - canceled
June I set up a group called Brave in Paint to encourage and support other artists
Long-listed for the Jackson’s Art Prize and The Ashurst Prize
July Launched my first collection of paintings Line and Light
September “Falls” was short-listed and sold at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020
October “The End of the Day” has been selected to show at the ING Discerning Eye on line exhibition - Mall Galleries
Showing at “Art &” in York Race Course from October 25th - 27th 2020. UPDATE: now canceled due to Coronavirus
December Launched my second collection BonBon
2019
May created a new abstract body of work which was purely intuitive
June/July selected for The Holt Festival Art Prize with Lemon and Crocosmia - sold
September I had a solo show at an outlet in Wroxham Barns , Norfolk
November I exhibited at my first art fair : Art Fair East in central Norwich
2007 - 2018
I showed with the Open Studios a few times during this period while I ran a commission based decoration business called Moobaacluck - designing stationery and gifts, illustrated and undertook pet portraits which are still available to commission on Notonthehighstreet.com/fromaplaceofwonder . In 2009 I had my only solo show to date at the Garden House Gallery in Cromer.
1990 - 2007
In the 1990s while living in Surrey I contributed to a couple of shows as an illustrator; at the Mall Galleries and the Association of Illustrators in London and illustrated for magazines, children’s books and paper goods companies. I also worked as an in-house Christmas card and wrapping paper designer for three years with International Greetings and for two years as a Product Manager for Card Connection - now owned by Gibson Greetings. When we moved to Norfolk I continued to work as an illustrator for several years.
Bio
Gabriella has always lived in the East of England in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Surrey, in that order! For the last 20 years near Cromer in North Norfolk with her husband, photographer Tony Buckingham and two children. She lives ten minutes from the sea and commutes to work across her untamed garden.
After completing a BA(Hons) in Graphic Design at Kingston Polytechnic, as it was then, Gabriella worked for national magazines illustrating everything from broccoli to romantic fiction. For three years she worked as an in-house Christmas artist for International Greetings designing cards and wrapping paper, and subsequently became a product manager for another card company for two years before returning to freelancing. She has illustrated many children’s books and created a children’s gift brand called Moobaacluck which she ran for ten years.
Since 2019 she has devoted her time to her fine art taking part in her first art fair which was a great success. Since then she has sold many paintings to clients worldwide, and locally during Open Studio events. In 2020 some of her paintings were longlisted for the Jackson’s Art Prize and The Ashurst Prize. Two other works were selected at the final stages of ING Discerning Eye and The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition that year. Gabriella's work has been chosen for the Sir John Hurt Prize in Norfolk each time she has entered over the last 5 years and in 2023 she was delighted to learn that both her entries to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition were chosen to be hung, where both works sold on opening night and were also printed as a card and art print for the RA shop. During this time Gabriella also developed a few online art courses on her Brave In Paint online teaching platform. Find out more at Braveinpaint.com