October 2023 – Steph Coley

Steph visited the society in October 2023 and demonstrated her mixed media portrait art. Using torn book and song sheet pages glued to the canvas, over drawn with a ball point pen or biro! and a little ink and acrylic paint to produce a stunning portrait image.

About Steph:  https://stephcoley.com/

A mixed media artist born in Derbyshire, UK, where she still lives and works. Completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) in 2001. Her artwork often mixes her love of drawing, painting and collage. As an artist she is really inspired and excited by found materials, which she likes to incorporate in her mixed-media artwork. Materials with any age, history or a backstory excite her enormously and she is constantly on the lookout for any ‘new’ additions to add to her ever-growing supply of collage materials.

Her art process is often instinctive and playful. She likes to try and let the materials dictate how she uses them. Ripped edges of paper excite her. Allowing paint to run & flow feels liberating. She enjoys the juxtapose of images, text, colour and shape. She embraces mistakes and she rarely has much of a prior plan with her artwork, as she feels this really restricts and restrains her process and flow.