SANDRA HIGGINS ART
MARY ROMER
The emotional sensations conjured up by memory has been the focus of Romer’s creative exploration in recent years. Cloud forms have become a visual metaphor for memory. Clouds like memories, change and alter with time and prevailing weather conditions. Billowing clouds are also a reminder of the immense forces of nature, and our difficulty in grasping, let alone understanding how to deal with the effects of global warming. In her latest works the wind-blown vapour trails and cloudscapes are also a reminder of the beauty and magnificence around us in the natural world. The process of making this work is very much of Romer’s devising, and something that is being continually explored and perfected, were perfection possible when the elements of chance play such an important part.
Shaping the painting through dexterity and control of fluidity allows her to build softly exfoliating expanses of densely coloured paint, creating a sense of volume and space. Capturing the sensation of light falling on the landscape, or piercing the clouds has intrigued and informed her technique. With a monochromatic palette to pin down the shifting veils of light and vapour, her work expresses states of consciousness, sometimes in neutral, or at other moments as a holding pen for an idea. A visual language, which animates and pulsates on the surface, recalling those moments found gazing at the sky, where air, wind and vapour coalesce. Mary studied at Anglia Ruskin College, Cambridge. She holds a BA in Fine Art (Contemporary Practice). In 2015 she was selected and completed an intensive 3 week course at The Slade, UCL London. Her work has been selected regularly for The Eastern Open, Cambridge Artworks, several London galleries and the Royal Academy of the Arts Summer Exhibition. Her work is in private and public collections worldwide.