Projects

Spanning decades, Lucy's diverse artistic process has explored a range of ever evolving forms and sources of inspiration. Each year has built greater trust in the process, with increasing surrender to intuition and acceptance of the unexpected. This journey has led to a growing appreciation of raw energetic expression over literal representation of concrete matter, and is a reflection of her ongoing exploration and discovery of the inner and outer realms.

2023

What elements were essential to your work this year? What was your view on your role as artist in society this year? What event was fundamental this year, and how did it find its way into your work? Which memories do the projects from this year evoke? What was your favorite work from this year? What event most inspired your work this year? Was there a song or book stuck in your head, as you were working on these? Did your favorite color(s) change all of the sudden? What new work inspired you this year? What did you have to suddenly do without that forced you to be resourceful? What particular vision did you set out to accomplish with this part of your collection, if applicable?

2022

2021

This year, I at elements were essential to your work this year? What was your view on your role as artist in society this year? What event was fundamental this year, and how did it find its way into your work? Which memories do the projects from this year evoke? What was your favorite work from this year? What event most inspired your work this year? Was there a song or book stuck in your head, as you were working on these? Did your favorite color(s) change all of the sudden? What new work inspired you this year? What did you have to suddenly do without that forced you to be resourceful? What particular vision did you set out to accomplish with this part of your collection, if applicable?

2020

This was the year that I found the linen sheets in the local recycling shop, I had come to the end of another 10 metre roll of treated canvas , Money was short and I had no prospect of showing any work any where, The Covid Lockdown was happening, and I decided that I would use this time to finally unravel the knot of my own existence ! who am I, what is this huge universe and how do those two realities relate to each other ?. I felt very lucky to have my studio a 10 minute walk away, and to be able to continue exploring the way in which the universe presented itself to me, as I have been doing most of my life Since the closure of the Francis Kyle Gallery in 2014, all efforts to find a place to show my work had been entirely unsuccessful, each attempt for a very different reason. So effectively, as I could not stop painting I was catapulted into complete freedom of expression, the only restraints being space and time . So the same universe that closed all those doors, also opened new ones and gave me the fabulous linen sheets . As they were huge and cheap I could do as many as I wanted without worrying about storage, and as they are unprimed I could play with different ways of applying paint , which has proved to be a lot of fun and lead to a huge expansion in my visual approach. It makes me laugh when I remember being told off severely for drawing on my sheets with a felt tip pen at the age of 5 or 6, I couldn't understand why it was SO naughty ! I have always loved the aspect of surprise discovery, and when after working on one side of the sheet I turned it over I found there was another version of the same painting, sometimes it took off in another direction but always it showed up very decisively, I often did 2 large sheets, on both sides in a week. Often, I found myself painting Illusory Cities, Like castles in the clouds, or the ruins of a civilisation, I remember seeing this , https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ominous-cloud-looming-over-china- these phantom cloud cities in 2014 , I would come home drunk with having created and destroyed entire civilisations with the flick of a brush, Then I had to assimilate that superpower with my completely evident non presence in any kind of art world or culture I just had to continue with the conviction that whatever power was channelling itself through me, would also take care of he way it would get out into the world.

2019

2018

2017

2016

This was the year that I went to Japan 2 times ! A Japanese friend in N.Y. organised an exhibition in Tokyo, with the wood engravings of my grandmother Gwen Raverat, she wrote a book 'Period Piece' which has been translated worldwide about growing up in tha Darwin family in Cambridge. I also went walking on an old pilgrim route in the Mountains. The "assemblages" happened kind of by mistake, in that while impetuously tearing up an old watercolour, I suddenly saw that the torn pieces were much more interesting than the original, then by mixing them up with all kinds of found scraps, and then suspending them in a plexiglass sandwich, the random juxtaposition opened a new door into infinite possibilities, the precious fleeting, random images that flood our consciousness every instant frozen into one space. This year I listened a lot to French singers from the 40's like Léo Ferré, Barbara, Jaques Brel, Yves Montand and Charles Trenet. I love their passion and irreverance.