Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair with Andrea Byrne and Bridget Davies

Published 17 May 2017

Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair – Andrea Byrne and Bridget Davies

With the Hong Kong Affordable Art Fair coming up this week (19th – 21st May), we thought we would take the chance to look at the works of two of the wonderful artists that we will be showing, Andrea Byrne and Bridget Davies.

Andrea Byrne –

Sunsapphire

Born in Islington, London in 1962 artist Andrea Byrne moved with her parents to Lancashire at the age of seven. She returned to London in 1986 where she continues to live and work.

Preciousplinky

Since 2000 Andrea has focused on large-scale paintings of flowers; originally her work was an extension of her involvement within contemporary fashion movements whist developing her distinctive painting style. Her first solo show in London in 2002 sold out, as did subsequent solo shows in ’03, ’04, ’06, ’07 and ’09. She was shortlisted for the Celeste Art Prize in 2006 and the winner of the AAF Artist Award in 2003. Andrea’s work features extensively in both private and corporate collections nationally and internationally.

Andrea studied for an M.A Fine Art at St. Martins School of Art, (2004) where her work moved into installation as well as painting. Her figurative paintings were exhibited as part of the On Time East Wing collection at the Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House London (2008 -2009). Byrne was awarded a further M.A. from Goldsmiths College in Aural & Visual Cultures in 2007.

Andrea Byrne Studio

When we asked Andrea about the inspiration for her amazing works she told us of her admiration for female artists.

“There are so many female artists who I consider 'inaudible mentors' and whom give me constant inspiration.

Sensuality, movement and an expression of temporality are of major concerns in my flower paintings which are heavily glossed and attributes the work with a seductive intent.

Influences are the 16th Century Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch; I share the same corporeal concerns that the great Georgia O’Keeffe has in her powerful flower paintings but in terms of application it is for me a performative process more akin to the abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler whose work I greatly admire.

A woman painting flowers has a long tradition but it is a complicated and sometimes subversive one. I decisively wanted to paint large-scale flowers that had a watercolour quality but most of all I wanted them to be strong in every sense through scale, application and impact but most of all I wanted to hear them bellow their questions.

For me the work of Georgia O Keeffe especially her flowers are influential and so important because her paintings are abundantly filled with spirituality, integrity mystery and power. In 1925 Petunia her first large-scale flower painting was exhibited in New York City and marked the beginning of a close-up examination of the flower as model. The ruffles and crevices of the petals and stamen portraying reproduction, sex and beauty beckon a viewer to stop and listen intently to the question.”

Emeraldmoon

BurntDiamond

Bridget Davies -

Party Time

Lady Veil

Lady 8

Bridget was trained at Bretton Hall, University of Leeds where she gained a first-class BA in Fashion and Textiles. After a spell of teaching fashion and fashion illustration in Milan, she worked in the fashion industry for several years as an embroiderer and fashion designer. This can be seen throughout her works and is an obvious inspiration to her. After several years living abroad Bridget returned to England and to her first love, painting figures and illustrating fashion. Since then, she has become a successful freelance artist working from her studio in West Sussex.

The works that have been chosen to go to Hong Kong show the beauty and intricacy that Bridget brings to her figures and the fashion they wear; with their eye-popping colours and gold backgrounds, they are hard not to love.

Oops Same Dress

Trapped Triptych

Attracting Attention

Both of these amazing artists should do fanstatically at the Affordable Art Fair in Hong Kong with their amazing colours and flowing techiniques that just seem to draw you into their works. They both have different styles and ways of applying paint but they are both equally enchanting.

Galla