Biddy Hodgkinson | The Work
Statement
Brought up in the 1960’s on a farm in England, Biddy Hodgkinson was constantly observing life and death cycles. After being educated in north Yorkshire, she then worked on an ocean liner and a range of other jobs which allowed her to travel extensively, settling for a while to have a family in Lincolnshire, where as a consequence of a spinal injury she became deeply interested in Eastern medicine and philosophy, this led her to qualifying as a yoga teacher. In mid-life Hodgkinson attended Stamford College for foundation course where she developed her true love of colour, drawing, photography and painting, which lead her to Chelsea College of Art where she has recently graduated in Fine Art (BA Hons).
The inspiration for the paintings comes from close observations of lifecycles with particular focus on flowers, plants and moulds. The artist’s fascination is in the endless metamorphic process, the beauty and luminosity exists in the decay, not just the ripeness of youth, whilst colours can be vivid they are offset against their own inevitable deterioration and loss. Through painterly techniques, Biddy Hodgkinson interprets the violent intensity and beautiful imagery we see in natural decay and mould by using harmful agents, such as acids, to erase and bleach away large swathes of colours, showing them in the context of their own negation as it would be in nature. She creates intriquing sculptural surfaces on the canvas. As Wallace Stevens wrote , “death is the mother of beauty”.
Previous work has focussed on “Old Wives Tales”, the influence of the matriarch, and interpretation of religion on Western culture. A fascination for mythology, superstitions and the contrast of scientific proof still underpins the work and has led to her deeper interest in alchemy.
Biddy Hodgkinson’s work was selected by Clyde & Co., a selection is currently on display at their new prestigious offices in Bishopsgate as part of their programme to support emerging artists and recently the artist had a collection commissioned by Taylor Wimpey & Chesterton Humberts.