We dropped into Stephanie Douet's studio in Aylsham Norfolk recently to catch up on what she has been up to during the last twelve months since taking some time out. She had completed a new body of work built upon previous pieces and inspired by her travels through the former Yugoslavia.
She showed us eight constructed paintings. They have been created from sketches, photographs, objects and chance encounters Stephanie has used as source material to fashion this small collection, the third since she started the project.
The first outcome from this residency was an exhibition presented at Prostor Gallery in Split, followed by a second at the Croatian Embassy in London. So The Red Roberts represent the third chapter in this sequence. With travel more limited recently because of family commitments, Stephanie has gone further into the subject area that already meant a lot to her, gained during her travels. These were as diverse as objects found in the streets, museum and market discoveries, carrying traces of these young countries and their interconnected histories.
References to the region's Roman and Brutalist architecture, the dreamlike cityscapes of Giorgio de Chirico, and the restless landscapes of Edward Lear have inhabited her thoughts while making the work. For Stephanie colour has become more crucial, giving body to the constructed elements she has brought together. Her painted surfaces shift between planes, some distressed or articially aged, others using forced perspectives, outline and pattern to break up their irregular boundaries.
The Red Roberts are not depictions of places or things. The series do not represent a travelogue, but a coda for what is to come. The new work emerges through an intuitive process of cutting, sketching, collaging and reassigning off-cuts from fragments of earlier pieces. Familiar forms slip out of focus and new ones replace them. It is a process of self-renewal.
Part sculpture, part painting, part artefact, The Red Roberts playfully occupy their territory between memory and invention.
To visit Stephanie Douet and arrange to see this new body of work at her studio, Alysham, North Norfolk, contact her direct on:
stephanie.douet.studio@gmail.com
About the author
Paul Vater
PAUL VATER
Paul conducts studio visits to maintain strong relationships with artists, designers and craftspeople who show their work with us. He manages the main C&C website and has developed the online shop where selected works are presented for sale.
Paul established his design company, Sugarfree, in 1990 and quickly gained a reputation for delivering fresh, effective marketing campaigns and brand identities for clients including Save the Children Fund, United Nations Association and UNHCR. Over the years those added to the roster include IPC Magazines, Arts Council England, The Roundhouse, Barbican Centre, Arts Marketing Association, Look Ahead Housing and Care, Paddington Waterside, BBC Worldwide, Commonwealth Foundation, Prestel, City of London Corporation, Baker Street Quarter, Victoria BID and the University of East Anglia.