Artist’s Statement 

My painting is landscape-based, but it asks questions about our human connections within the world.  It is grounded in my island home of Guernsey, but examines universal issues linked to the notion of contested landscapes. This taps into the social, political, and geographic; the conflict between the natural world and the ‘manmade; and to personal and collective memory and identity.  Themes that the work touches on include loss and desire, displacement and marginalisation, and the uncanny and otherworldly.

At a time of wide global trauma, climate crisis and alarming biodiversity loss, my work is often dark and melancholic. Landscape is not presented as a picturesque view but as ‘immersive’ - as a series of signs that focus on the fragility of life, both human and non-human.   

Drawing in the landscape is often my starting point. It makes me think about past events that have shaped the environment, the people and stories, and the sense of place. I am led predominantly by felt sense-experiences and the haptic, feeling my way through the slippages between the known and unknown.

I’m interested in how visual art taps into the embodied senses and emotions. Working intuitively and imaginatively between figuration, abstraction and drawing, I enjoy the tensions that this can create with oil paint, through colour and mark-making. A work is complete when it feels emotionally charged and autonomous, but resists an instantaneous reading, inviting the viewer to make their own connections.

Artist’s Bio

Fiona Richmond (b. Guernsey, Channel Islands) is a painter and visual artist living and working in Guernsey. She has had solo exhibitions in Guernsey and Stockton on Tees, and has been included in group exhibitions at the Gate House Gallery, the George Crossan Gallery and the Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery.

In 2021 she was awarded the Guernsey Arts Open Prize.

Fiona holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Visual Art (Fine Art) and Art History from Middlesex University