About Lydia Shaw
Biography
In the simplest terms, my work is a celebration of the human body. A sentence, I’m sure, has been repeated by every artist who has painted the same subject as I.
In my work I study light and form in a monochrome palette and using chiaroscuro, I like to play with the figures so they emerge from the background to create sensual yet modest nudes.
I work in oils and paint with my fingers, electing to mix the black and white directly onto the canvas to create a variety of tones and painterly textures within the painting. Looking closely at one of my pieces, you can see how the paint blends from one tone to another. Step back, and you’ll see how both come together to contribute the final piece.
Historically, the lure of the nude has something to do with voyeurism and taboo. A nude painting allows you to stare at the wonder of the human body and all its attributes without rebuke, because after all, it is art. Through expressive brush-strokes, applied only after the pieces is completed, emitting intimate parts from my paintings, I remove this sense of taboo from my work deliberately and ask people to focus on the overall form, the landscape of the body, the lighting and the texture of the paint itself. A nude body is more than the parts usually hidden from view.
In addition to nude paintings, I have also started to document the life of British Working Men’s Clubs through a series of ink pen drawings. I grew up in a traditional working class village where such pubs were, and still are, community hubs. They were places frequented by my parents, their friends and their parents too. Where you are known not by your name, but your parents and your family. However in coming back to appreciate these institutions of working class life, the thought struck me that as the clientele aged, the younger generation who would have traditionally followed in their footsteps, simply weren’t and one day, working men’s clubs will slowly shut down and forgotten about.
In my work I study light and form in a monochrome palette and using chiaroscuro, I like to play with the figures so they emerge from the background to create sensual yet modest nudes.
I work in oils and paint with my fingers, electing to mix the black and white directly onto the canvas to create a variety of tones and painterly textures within the painting. Looking closely at one of my pieces, you can see how the paint blends from one tone to another. Step back, and you’ll see how both come together to contribute the final piece.
Historically, the lure of the nude has something to do with voyeurism and taboo. A nude painting allows you to stare at the wonder of the human body and all its attributes without rebuke, because after all, it is art. Through expressive brush-strokes, applied only after the pieces is completed, emitting intimate parts from my paintings, I remove this sense of taboo from my work deliberately and ask people to focus on the overall form, the landscape of the body, the lighting and the texture of the paint itself. A nude body is more than the parts usually hidden from view.
In addition to nude paintings, I have also started to document the life of British Working Men’s Clubs through a series of ink pen drawings. I grew up in a traditional working class village where such pubs were, and still are, community hubs. They were places frequented by my parents, their friends and their parents too. Where you are known not by your name, but your parents and your family. However in coming back to appreciate these institutions of working class life, the thought struck me that as the clientele aged, the younger generation who would have traditionally followed in their footsteps, simply weren’t and one day, working men’s clubs will slowly shut down and forgotten about.
