Vicky Palmer
A portrait artist - well, even cows need portraits.
Vicky Palmer has become known for her contemporary photographic style of portraiture. She is based in the wilds of Wiltshire, where her style of plain unfussy backgrounds compliment her highly detailed depiction of people, or even the cows in the surrounding fields and last but no means least, the beautiful fox hound packs which are based near and far in Wiltshire, Gloustershire, Berkshire and beyond. She has been concentrating mainly on the a collection of hound painting of late, with her aim to follow as many packs as possible around the country
Vicky does a lot of commission work of people and dogs and the The Fox hounds came about by a commission of some beagle hounds, curious little bundles of energy. Having experienced them first hand it seemed a natural progression to seek out fox hounds and in painting such beautiful creatures help their cause, to an extent.
Her works of Fox hounds are normally placed on a neutral grey background, no need for extra detail, as this is how it needs to be, allowing the focus on the delight and robust energy of the hounds, who’s individual characters are brought out with every detailed stroke she uses, unrelenting until she feels she has captured what she sees in each particular animal, as she would with her portraits of people, making a unique approach to Hound painting. Along with this, the Hounds being working creatures, are full of vitality yet extremely kind natured obedient animals which the containment of the blank subtly toned canvas compliments.
The cows on the other hand, are often depicted on a colourful background, being as they are, a fun break from the traditional side of portrait painting. Why cows you ask, well after having moved to the countryside and being constantly bombarded, whilst walking her dog, by these nosey, slightly insane creatures, which, in her words, ‘you can’t help becoming rather attached to’, the urge was to great not to start painting them.
In each case the plain uncomplicated background allows the viewer to place there own take on the animals, removing them from their traditional environments as often depicted.
Vicky works from her own photos and when starting a piece, having had past experience as a graphic deisigner, she sketches out her initial concepts and ideas and then montages photos together to create a rough for her final painting.
She recently exhibited at the Country life Fair last September, where her subject matter was fully appropriate as one can imagine. She has exhibited extensively around the South West and London being a regular exhibitor at the Animal Art Fair.
