Last month we welcomed award-winning oil painter Corinne Young to Collier & Dobson, and launched her remarkably realistic portrayals of open water swimmers as limited edition prints, as well as offering her original paintings. So now is a great time to dive a little deeper into the life of the accomplished young artist, and discover her artistic journey and achievements.
Corinne was born in Saudi Arabia in 1992, and spent much of her early years travelling between the Middle East and the UK, later relocating to North Devon.
In 2014, Corinne achieved a degree in Fine Art at Plymouth University where she “relished going to life drawing classes and painting the figure, as well as the aesthetic of paint”, before moving back to her native North Devon to pursue her artistic endeavours.
Corinne’s principal subject and “first love” is portraiture, in which she uses oil paint to create texture and rich tones to breathe life into her paintings. She says of her creative techniques “I work by loosely, and quickly, getting in the colours, tone and a minimal amount of detail first. It gives you a stronger direction of the piece and I like that the second layer has some colour coming through too.”
2017 proved to be a fruitful year for the artist: she participated in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, competing against other professional artists, and was shortlisted by judges for her portrait of presenter Adrian Chiles. Adrian described the painting as “a colourful affair featuring me looking thoughtfully, but amiably, into the middle distance. […] Ooh, I thought: that’s caught the blue in my eyes just right”.
In the same year Corinne also opened her own successful gallery Jackson & Young in Barnstaple with co-founder, friend, and fellow artist Sarah Jackson. As well as working on their own solo projects, the pair regularly team up to produce collaborative commissions such as British wildlife art, landscape, and seascapes.
Further accolades include The Holly Bush Emerging Women Painter Prize in 2020, for her painting Reasons to Be Alone. The prize is awarded to the artist “considered most likely to succeed as a professional artist”, and was founded by Ecclestone Art, aimed at supporting emerging female artists.
Of the honour, Corinne says “Portraiture is my first love, and when creating my piece Reasons To Be Alone, I felt immersed in and liberated by what I was creating […] I love how oil paint can create rich tones, textures and movement in a piece, and it’s a thrill to have been recognised for that in my portraiture work.”
Corinne's sought after work has been widely exhibited in locations across the UK and worldwide - from Devon and London to Saudi Arabia, and her work was selected for exhibit in the Society of Women Artists exhibition in Mall Galleries this June.
If that has whet your appetite, head over to our online gallery to browse and buy from her latest collection of singularly striking and powerful limited edition prints and original paintings.
