Working in her first-floor studio Kerry J Stoker makes abstract paintings and collages. She says of her work:
‘Joyful and spontaneous, my paintings and collages are intimate expressions of how I see and interpret the world around and within me. I aim to articulate, and share, that elusive personally significant and visually engaging magic.’
After graduating with a Fine Art degree from Reading University, Berkshire Kerry obtained a PGCE from Stranmillis College, Belfast and taught art until she had the opportunity to paint full time. Of painting she says:
Colour and abstraction make my heart sing. I love warm colours especially pinks, hot or delicate. I pour paint, primarily acrylics and household, also ink, fabric dyes and a variety of other liquids like tea onto the surface, building layers randomly in both media and meaning, each equally critical for success.
Brushing, scraping and staining, sometimes adding textures using crushed Yorkshire stone or coal, Plaster of Paris or pure pigment powder, elements are revealed and concealed. By developing and experimenting with a variety of mark making techniques, I alter the image until an intangible excitement is captured within and I work until the image delights.
Luminous Beauty 2022
Let it Flow
Do You See What I See?
Exuberance
Collage and Mixed Media.
I collect rubbish like a magpie, shiny colourful textural interesting to me rubbish, squirrelled away, gathering dust until I root around to find the perfect piece. From packaging to wrapping paper and cellophane to my old cut up and torn artworks, from fabric to gold leaf and inks to household paint, from teabag dust to string and feathers to bark and so much more I have gathered and stored ‘stuff’ as it may come in useful one day!
Screen printing often provides the basic layer upon which to develop my collages, then, plundering the paraphernalia while absorbing the feeling within each artwork I am wholly unaware of all else around me and meaning materialises, often unfolding subconsciously.
Nugget 2
Untitled
Nugget 1
Kerry regularly exhibits at the Tinker Gallery www.tinkergallery.co.uk in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, a beautiful contemporary art space and is an active member of Ilkley Arts www.ilkleyarts.co.uk showing her art in Pop Ups and Open Studios events. She was a founding member of the Solar Gallery, Ilkley Manor House, exhibiting and volunteering regularly until 2022.
Kerry’s collaborative and group shows include:-
Dovetailing Responses and Seven Artists One Pebble Seven Journeys, both displayed in the Western Gallery, Ilkley Manor House, Ilkley.
Art-E-Motion‘s Venice Vending Machine at both Tate Liverpool and Bristol. The Vending Machine showcases miniature artworks produced by international artists and is a travelling participatory performance art and installation that invites artists to support each other whilst interacting with the public.
London exhibitions include the Here’s Hope exhibition at the Menier Gallery, Bankside, the Summer Show at La Galleria, Pall Mall, Art for Youth at the Royal College of Art and The Society of Women Artists, Westminster Gallery.
In Yorkshire Kerry has also shown her work at Art for Youth North, Topcliffe, the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate and on the Bradford Big Screen, Centenary Square, Bradford. Her work has also been shortlisted for the Royal Society of Oil Painters, London
Kerry’s work is in private and corporate collections in the UK and overseas. In Ilkley, Kerry’s paintings are permanently on display in Harrison Robinson Estate Agents, Ilkley, and are available to view, and buy, any time. The display is regularly refreshed and rehung when new work is available: harrisonrobinson.co.uk
(All images shown here are used with the permission of the artist)
Artist’s Website: Kerry J Stoker
See also Kerry J Stoker’s ‘My Art’