Description
Lorna Holdcroft-Kirin was born in Surrey in 1967. She trained at Wimbledon School of Art where she was awarded the prize for drawing.
In the late 1980s, Lorna studied at North East Polytechnic (now University of East London). As a result of this she gained a BA Hons in Fine Art.
Based in the heart of the East End of London, she drew inspiration from disused dockland areas and industrial landscapes. Here, she explored her love of colour and texture, a passion that has informed her painting ever since.
“I always strive to convey that moment when I see an amazing view for the first time and for that I have to have experienced it myself. To be able to observe the subtle changes in nature, weather and light with each week and season, brings a real privilege. Colour has always been central to my work and invariably is the initial inspiration for a new project. It is what really moves me. Whether it be the fantastic array of hues in tree bark, a thunderous Prussian blue sky or the sumptuous crimson of an amaryllis.
I cover the surface with paint quickly to get a sense of colour and tone and work the whole painting at once. I also use a lot of water, deliberately. This is to wash out areas of semi-dry watercolour or to cause the break-up of pastel pigment. This gives often surprising and always intriguing results. I love the journey each painting takes me on – it’s definitely a two-way process!
Now living in Suffolk, Lorna has exhibited widely in London, Surrey and Sussex. She also has work in private collections all over the world.
My recent paintings explore the beauty of our stunning landscape and coastline. Colour, of course has always been central to my work and is what really moves me. The fantastic array of hues found hidden in the landscape and in the water are gripping and I love to think of pigments to best describe them as I pass by and then explore these back in the studio. I’m drawn to the wonderfully organic forms and textures that nature provides too, together with the juxtaposition of human intervention, tracks, fields, boundaries, paths. My work focuses on these contrasts, pushing pigments and marks to evoke a real sense of emotion and to make the subject resonate. I love the thrill of applying paint to canvas, with bold washes and thick textured brush marks evoking a real sense of immediacy and excitement, seeking to capture that first glimpse of a stunning view and to impart that feeling of awe to the viewer. I like to think my paintings are fearless. I take risks with them at all stages of their development, in order to seek that balance between complete freedom and control. I use a lot of water and am endlessly experimenting with different media and ideas.
I am also very fortunate to work in collaboration with my husband, Stephen. Here I indulge my absolute love of drawing and am always thrilled by the unexpected images that result in sharing a piece of paper with him. It reinforces our trust in each other and the freedom in the marks we make together; there is little room for preciousness. This approach has also informed my own work, as it enables me to take a further step back somehow, to be more objective and to embrace the unpredictable.