Deborah Bryden

Contact: [email protected]

 

About the artist

Deborah was born in Dublin, Ireland, but for the most part, her childhood was spent living on the west coast of Co Galway.  Her work is strongly influenced by her intimate experience of the Irish land and seascape, and of Connemara in particular. Abstracted elemental iconography therefore, frequently emerges in her images. Being a long-time immigrant to the UK, the issue of identity and the sense of internal homelessness that an immigrant can experience are of particular interest to her.

Having postgraduate training in art psychotherapy has also informed her work. For example, she can allow her unconscious to lead the way and to take advantage of the ‘accidental’ mark or the spontaneous gesture.   However, her training in fine art helps her to use some of the necessary and more formal aspects of the image making process to help create some structure and bring a sense of coherence to the work.

1993-96  Goldsmiths’ College, Post Graduate Diploma in Art Psychotherapy
1992-93  Goldsmiths’ College, Foundation Course in Art Psychotherapy
1986-89  City and Guilds of London Art School, Diploma in Fine Art
1967-68  Byam Shaw School of Art, Foundation Course

About the work
There are different strands to the technical approach Deborah uses. The work tends to be broadly abstracted from observation. She often she uses her own, or ‘found’ photographs or images as a starting point. Sometimes, she begins by pouring inks and paints on paper in a semi random way.  She then ‘zooms’ in, as it were, to an area that triggers a familiar or perhaps an unfamiliar feeling or a thought. The area is isolated by tearing, or by cutting it out.  She develops the image further by working into it instinctively or intuitively using mixed media and collage. She feels her way of working can be akin to a sort of waking dreaming journey.

Deborah is currently working on a series of small images around the theme of ‘Landscape, Memory and the Unconscious’. Being a synthesis of her life experience so far, they are, in effect, ‘internal landscapes’. In the future, she plans to try to find a way of exploring through her way of working, how relatively recent history – such as the potato famine and turf cutting – has impacted the extraordinary landscape of the west coast of Ireland and her own experience of it.

Deborah is a member of the Kingston Artists Open Studios group and she participated successfully in the 2019 Open Studios.

Deborah Bryden

Contact: [email protected]

 

About the artist

Deborah was born in Dublin, Ireland, but for the most part, her childhood was spent living on the west coast of Co Galway.  Her work is strongly influenced by her intimate experience of the Irish land and seascape, and of Connemara in particular. Abstracted elemental iconography therefore, frequently emerges in her images. Being a long-time immigrant to the UK, the issue of identity and the sense of internal homelessness that an immigrant can experience are of particular interest to her.

Having postgraduate training in art psychotherapy has also informed her work. For example, she can allow her unconscious to lead the way and to take advantage of the ‘accidental’ mark or the spontaneous gesture.   However, her training in fine art helps her to use some of the necessary and more formal aspects of the image making process to help create some structure and bring a sense of coherence to the work.

1993-96  Goldsmiths’ College, Post Graduate Diploma in Art Psychotherapy
1992-93  Goldsmiths’ College, Foundation Course in Art Psychotherapy
1986-89  City and Guilds of London Art School, Diploma in Fine Art
1967-68  Byam Shaw School of Art, Foundation Course

About the work
There are different strands to the technical approach Deborah uses. The work tends to be broadly abstracted from observation. She often she uses her own, or ‘found’ photographs or images as a starting point. Sometimes, she begins by pouring inks and paints on paper in a semi random way.  She then ‘zooms’ in, as it were, to an area that triggers a familiar or perhaps an unfamiliar feeling or a thought. The area is isolated by tearing, or by cutting it out.  She develops the image further by working into it instinctively or intuitively using mixed media and collage. She feels her way of working can be akin to a sort of waking dreaming journey.

Deborah is currently working on a series of small images around the theme of ‘Landscape, Memory and the Unconscious’. Being a synthesis of her life experience so far, they are, in effect, ‘internal landscapes’. In the future, she plans to try to find a way of exploring through her way of working, how relatively recent history – such as the potato famine and turf cutting – has impacted the extraordinary landscape of the west coast of Ireland and her own experience of it.

Deborah is a member of the Kingston Artists Open Studios group and she participated successfully in the 2019 Open Studios.