SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
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The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Annette Elizabeth
Sykes
UK
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“My childhood was full of color, cloth, and education.”
Annette Elizabeth Sykes is a contemporary printmaker/mixed media artist who lives and works in Northants, England, using print, paint, and stitch in a unique combination to create her work; drawing variously upon archaeology and nature for her inspiration, although anything might catch her eye and fire her imagination.
The glory of gold, the summer sun bringing even the corals to life, bending to the will of the tides. The gorgeous myriad of colours is a wonder to behold by those who venture beneath the surface of the sea. Run your fingers over the surface and feel tiny plankton shapes beneath the golds.
She was born to a Mother who specialized in handmade luxury silk lingerie, pattern making, and cutting and a Father who was a college lecturer. Her Grandfathers were Master Carpenter/Decorator and Head Gardener, so, hands-on and flowers!
Have you witnessed the infinite array of life which abounds in the depths of the oceans?
During my Scuba dives I became totally in awe of the diversity undersea.
Deep, dark blues and metallic bronze are the nurturing element for the peaches and cream trails of life and movement.
Bright and happy were the times when she, her Mum, Nan, and brother spent the week in their caravan, cockling and collecting, making people and creatures from empty shells. Dad would be there at the weekends, and as she got older she loved to wander in stormy weather on her own, walking, swimming, and dodging the spray. It is still her happy place.
“Nan taught me to knit and by age 11 or 12, I could race along on the treadle sewing machine.”
School holidays were spent at Nans’ house and although undemonstrative, they were good, kind people. Gramps carpenter shop was so warm and smelled of sawn wood, french polish, and varnish. These periods of time are cherished memories of happiness.
“At home, I began to spend more and more time in the fields alone and in a hide made in the bushes or canoeing along the river early in a misty morning, listening to the birds waking up, relishing the solitude and stillness.”
These were the times when streams of colors, ribbons of energy filled her vision, just like the Northern Lights, but everywhere. She didn’t realize that they could not be seen by others until she grew older and then she folded the memories away and tucked them into a corner of her heart.
Have you ever sat on the sea floor and watched the weeds waving in the tidal flow? They are so graceful and colourful, yet so strong, surviving whatever the elements throw at them., just look at the pinks and greys in the background!
“My only playmates were the fairies and angels which accompanied me always, I wasn’t allowed to take ‘real’ friends home."
Can you imagine how much life begins in the universe? Swirling cells of energy coming together to create a living cell? Here deep blues and metallic silver host the thoughts of the universe as this swirling cell comes to life
She is still quite a ‘loner’ with a few special friends but is often content to be alone with her ‘imaginary’ friends and her art into which she can disappear for a while. She has always walked with one foot in each world, that inner one of potent meditative journeys and the day-to-day of ordinary life.
Millions of seeds are cast into the wilderness, just waiting to be fertilised, many getting dispersed along the way. The chosen one is gilded with gold, spinning in joyous celebration of the life within. Metallic gold, buffs, greens and blue
Then one day her two worlds collide in a totally unforeseen way. She was on a scuba diving trip in the Bahamas; she and her buddy, Gus, were descending a sheer cliff beneath the ocean as far as they could safely go. As she tucked her heels into a ledge on the rock, she looked out and her heart almost choked full of awe, wonder, and joy. It was as if the whole universe was here on Earth.
The first in my new series of work, Explosion of Joy was a pure reaction from my heart to my brush, golds and yellows just shout from this piece whilst life springs from the warmth of the sunlight and earth.
Above, nothing, below, nothing; in front of her, blue as far as the eye could see, just nothing, and yet that nothing was full of everything that creates and grows. But all too soon it was time to go, so she folded the memories up and tucked them away in a corner of her heart.
Light filters through the seaweeds on the reef illuminating the floating life hidden within, Here painted in metallic golds, greens and blues, she is a jewel of a piece of work. She can be framed in natural limewood.
“That joy, that unexplainable urge of creation, out of nothing, and now I am bringing you some of that vision, a taste of how that felt, the enormity of how that has impacted upon my life without realizing it over the years.”
Memories from beneath the sea, swirling tides, ebb and flow, carrying the minutiae of life to its’ whimsy, greens, blues, turquoise and deep violet amongst metallic silver
Fast forward a number of years, full of family, love, travel, yoga, healing, and of course painting, it skipped by. Then one day a group of friends visited her studio and as they looked at her skillful, perfect work she could see that they were totally underwhelmed. After they had gone, she sat and looked around, closed her eyes, and all of a sudden she was back, back in the water on that undersea ledge and she knew that this was what she had been missing all along.
Aren't you just blown away when you realise that of all the eggs laid, seeds sown by the wind, sperms swimming around, probably only one in a million get to burst into life and complete its' purpose on earth?
I am revelling in the colours, the movement, just getting carried away in the moment, just like this kernel of energy!
Now as she picks up her brush, she paints from those potent inner journeys to share with you that joy, that wonder, those colors, and something of the incredible experiences of her life. An explosion of joy!
As the tides pick up speed in the Camel estuary, rafts of seaweed begin to show themselves and bend to the whim of the wind and water, their roots holding firm, but going ‘with the flow’. They have no choice but to ride it out until they become uncovered or hidden by the tides. Here a medley of blues, greens, and golds sweep across the image, creating swathes of watery color with added eddies of white froth.