Portraits and Fine Art
Francesca’s canvases, which are partly autobiographical, are not about gaining a likeness, but about atmospheres and a feeling of a stolen moment, shared between the individual and the viewer.
The process for her is as important as the finished work. Layering on the paint, sometimes scraping or polishing away areas like an archaeologist, leaving traces of subtle colour, from earlier ideas, efforts and memories.
The finished work then develops half through chance. Francesca sees her paintings as pauses in a story which has not quite come to fruition.
Reviews
"…displays a body of work which is both contemporary in feel while at the same time having something timeless about it. This timelessness is apparent due to the sometimes theatrical, almost stage-set quality of the compositions, and the vibrant use of contrasting colours... One painting which highlights very successfully this ambiguity in time and place is 'Trafalgar Square'. At first sight I was led to consider whether the figures are simply ordinary people out on the street, or performing on a stage.
The subject matter of these paintings, primarily involving people in social situations, is lifted out of the ordinary or banal by Francesca's intense use of colour and dramatic use of perspective: apparent in 'Elvis Night' where one man's upper body and face looms in the foreground, creating a sense of drama and intrigue.
Each painting is very painterly in style.... capturing the intimacy, secrets, laughter - the inner thoughts of her characters. Each scene is expressive due to her choice of contrasting colour combinations, and her intense use of brushstroke, so much so that the atmosphere in each painting is almost tangible. Most specifically, I was struck by the sense of dramatic intrigue, achieved by the fascinating juxtaposition between the often open air of celebration and the sometimes darker sense of mystery.
…overall, a very interesting and uplifting body of work."
Angharad Morgan, MA RCA, Resident Art Critic (2006)
Francesca Sharkey has been painting for eleven years and, as is obvious from these images, much prefers to concentrate on the human figure. Whether painting herself, friends, models or complete strangers the primacy of the body continually asserts itself throughout her work Not surprisingly , she received a tranditional academic art education with much emphasis on drawing from the figure, which allowed her interest to flourish.
While staying in Paris, and unable to pay models, she drew from statues. The series of smaller figure studies along this wall began from looking at classical figures in the sculpture galleries of the Louvre. Despite the delicate and subtle colour, the essential heaviness- and in some cases, stiffness, remains. But these studies are fascinating in the way this is mediated by a trace of movement, as if the artist were trying to free them from their stillness. The limbs and poses are delineated with gouache and oil pastels, which are occasionally handled so freely that, for example, the facial features on some almost suggest movement. Influences acknowledged by the artist include Grosz and Dix for their use of satire; Bonnard for his atmospheric, emotional use of colour; and Daumier, who also drew from sculptures.
When painting herself or people she knows well, the artist often employs the direct, confrontational gaze, as if the only way to uncover something new about a well-known subject is to closely examine, through the medium of paint, their familiar features. In the larger self-portrait, this gaze becomes so important that the body is reduced to an awkwardly composed mass behind it. Cropping the figures or having them completely fill the canvas intesifies their power. But the subtle evocative colour both soothes and neutralises their gaze. These works are intensely personal responses to the dilemma faced by all portrait artists: how to distil the essence of the sitter onto a two-dimensional surface.
David Gleeson (2000)
