Beatrice HoffmanBA (Hons)

Beatrice Hoffman studied in Norwich for a BA sculpture Fine Art degree (1989), and in St. Albans for a post-graduate degree in art therapy (1990). She is an abstract oilpainter and a mainly figurative sculptor, working in an expressive, contemporary style.

She has undertaken numerous private commissions and one public commission for Norwich City Council (1991). She is widely exhibited, and her work is kept in nomerous private collections in Britain, Germany, Holland and the US.

In her painting, abstract Expressionism, Fauves and colourists of the 20th century have nurtured her development. She uses the available artistic means - composition and balance of various elements, colours, tone, application of paint and layering - to create an utterly visual, non-representational and vivid language.

The content of the image evolves out of the conscious and experimentative use of the painterly means. In distinction to her sculpting, the painting process evolves quickly into a dialogue, in which the canvas gives guidance or responses that dictate or suggest the necessary decisions; intuition and spontanity are more crucial elements conpared to the pratical process of sculpting, that involves more planning.

With her sculpture, absorbing the styles of African and early Greek carving, and 20th century modernism and cubism, she has found her very own original stylistic synthesis and message that crosses borders between spirituality, psychology and mythology.

She has built up a collection of small figures, suitable for indoor display; some tall figures, and most of her heads need larger outdoor spaces. More recently, in 2008-9 , she has looked at floral life - flowerheads, seedpods, stems, leaves - to create organic forms with strong volumes that express the strength, vitality and growth inherent in plants.

With her large heads she describes human emotions through the language of shapes, surfaces and lines. Hoffman considers the form of the head the perfect vehicle to explore issues relating to the human soul, and what we believe to lie behind the facial features, and further inside the layers of the brain – perception, consciousness, thoughts, feelings, and awareness, that together form and transcend our identity.

Tel 01327-361641, Bee Close House, Northants. NN113TF

beatrice.hoffman@btopenworld.com

www.beatricehoffman.co.uk