Lorna Hoey, artist and writer, is from Northern Ireland but worked as an Art teacher in Switzerland and London for many years before making her home in Suffolk. She is fascinated by the open landscapes and high wide skies, very different from the small fields, stone dykes and rugged coastline of her native County Antrim, and uses the natural world around her as a source of initial inspiration, but enjoys developing sketches and drawings through imagination and experimentation to make her atmospheric paintings. She particularly admires the work of Suffolk artist Harry Becker; his almost intuitive renderings of Suffolk farm labourers have an authenticity that she recognises from her former life among the hill farmers of County Antrim. Lorna's new work includes large pencil drawings made while out on the water meadows near her home, and landscapes using expressive brushwork to explore the hidden depths of the different seasons and their effect on the countryside around her.
