Becky Mair says of her instantly recognisable and lively artistic style “I developed my own immediate response to a technique developed by the abstract artist Jackson Pollock”; an artist who inspired her to produce fluid, energetic, representational reactions to his work. Her exuberant use of bold flicks, streaks, and splashes of paint is indeed reminiscent of the famous abstract-expressionist painter’s work during his ‘drip period’, but her discernible subject matter and idiomatic way of conveying the personality of her subjects is intrinsically her own.
If this has piqued your interest, read on to find out more about the contemporary artist who is constantly “searching for a different way to represent the familiar”...
Award winning Becky was born in Chatham, Kent, and at just ten years old she and her family moved abroad when her father began working in the Middle East, and Africa. For the next 15 years she and her family’s life would be described as somewhat nomadic, as they would commute between England and wherever her parents were living at the time.
In 1985 she completed a Foundation Course at Canterbury College of Art before moving to London to work primarily within the art related industries of advertising, film and television, and prêt a porter fashion houses. After a number of years gaining invaluable experience in these creative industries, Becky returned to her home county of Kent. There she worked in various
positions, including teaching horse riding during her time running a livery yard, and teaching arts and crafts at a co-educational day and boarding school.
Her experience in a range of art related roles, as well as work in the equestrian arena has almost certainly shaped her future artistic endeavours, as can be seen in her sprightly horse-themed representations, such as Beau and Midnight Moon.
It wasn’t until 2000 that she returned to UCA Canterbury where she achieved her BA Honours degree in Fine Art in 2004, and since then her art career has gone from strength to strength.
She has exhibited widely the length and breadth of the UK, and has won awards both locally and nationally, including Best Newcomer with the Society of Equestrian Artists in 2011, the Equestrian Art UK Contemporary Art Prize in 2012, and Best-Selling Published Artist at the Art & Framing Industry Awards in 2013.
Now married, she lives on a farm in Bredgar, along with their three children and numerous animals. An environment which is clearly a source of inspiration to Becky, as animals are firmly at the heart of her creative work, and her knowledge and admiration for fauna is evident in the characterful and vibrant representations of them in her work.
Her subjects take centre stage in her compositions; being created boldly in coloured paint against a plain white background. Working mainly in acrylic paint, ink or domestic emulsion paint, Becky works directly from the tube or paint pot, using a stick or tube to flick and direct the paint from a standing position over the paper or canvas. She creates dynamic depictions of a
broad spectrum of wildlife and domestic animals, including bounding dachshunds, leaping hare, charging bull, colourful kingfishers, and busy bees with acute and proficient observation.
She says “My belief in being an artist comes from the natural ability to observe and watch. In observing we see through and into the object [...] With my work I am interested in expressing an impression of the subject matter its stature, energy, and essence”.
Head over to our online gallery to browse and buy from her full collection of perceptive and expressive original paintings.
