Wendy Botto – portfolio

Contact the artist

https://www.artweeks.org/p/wendy-botto
07530 328877
wendybotto7(at)gmail.com

https://www.artweeks.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/13/wendy-botto-exhibition-305665655.pdf

Artist information

I have a fine Art Degree but currently juggle working as a dog agility trainer with painting. I run painting workshops, occasionally combing both my passions into ‘paint your dog’ workshops. I use a variety of materials for drawing or painting, covering a variety of subjects, ensuring that I keep up with life drawing too. I am running a workshop on the Thursday afternoon at our venue.

Exhibition information

Potty About Pots!!!

I am so excited to have the opportunity alongside 4 others to display our work in the Grade II listed barn and Drawing Room of the C17th Strawberry Gothic style country house & estate of Braziers Park, hence have included a series of works based on the venue—a place steeped in history and used and lived in by many e.g. Ian Fleming, the late Marianne Faithful and Mick Jagger!

But the main subject of my work for the exhibition reflects my new crazy love for old pots and kettles. There is just something about these objects that draws me to them, finding them on Vinted, charity shops or unwanted in peoples garages, cleaning them up slightly to enhance their beauty and give them some new life, and provide stronger reflections. I deliberately set up each item singly with a very simple dark background, making me seek out the colour in both the object itself and the background. The candle on the right not only provides a warm colour reflected into the metal, indicates the size of the object, plus has become a symbol of myself and my presence. Most contain some form of self-portrait reflection, whether me, my palette, canvas or easel. These are not always obvious, and could be double images or even stretched or upside down.

The shapes and character of these objects are such fun to paint, and I have deliberately chosen to work on smaller canvases and boards with bigger brushes and palette knife which prevents me from becoming too intricate. I’m looking to regain movement and life back into these objects. Someone has used these historically as a tool or utensil or even more recently just as an ornament that may have been left to tarnish. Hopefully my paintings celebrate their beauty again.

I don’t usually frame my work but after visiting a few recent exhibitions, realised that I could also hunt out old frames in second hand shops, discarded or passed on through house clearances to match up with the paintings. It has been fun working with a frame created by a framer and again revitalising them, while in keeping with the upcycling of old artifacts.

I have been experimenting more with materials, trying to move away from my usual acrylics limited palette, returning instead to oil paint & palette knives, plus have been learning linocut printing and even more recently have developed a new love for making my own egg tempera paint (which my dogs try to eat!!!) Subsequently I have explored new colours, and texture and I’m loving how you can build layers which can be scraped, dribbled or used dry or glossy.

All old teapots, kettles and jugs or frames will be gratefully received please.