Realignments: Works on Paper by Eleanor Wood
February 6 – March 12, 2016
Eleanor Wood is a British painter whose working procedure is obsessive. Using a combination of media the #paper is worked initially from the back and then built up in layers underneath the face of the work. When working on the ‘underneath’ layers she is planning for, and thinking about, how the concluding image on the surface will eventually be. The first thing, and usually the only thing the viewer sees is the surface, but the other layers, though barely visible, not only exist are essential. You see one thing but other hidden accumulations exist and these relate to the history of the work and to notions of time and sequence.
We live in a world where screens dominate almost everything, and are becoming unaccustomed to looking beneath for evidence of what existed before.
Eleanor Wood was born in London and has been living in Central California since 2002. She now divides her time between there and Norfolk in England. Both the particular open and austere landscape of East Anglia and the California light have had an impact on her work.
Eleanor Wood recently exhibited in the London Group Open Exhibition where she was awarded the Windsor and Newton Prize and has an essay on her work by Professor David Olivant included in the journal “Drawing: Theory, Research Practice” in November 2015. Her works are to be found in the collections of the Arts Council of Great Britain. The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, the Crocker Museum Sacramento, The Progressive Arts Collection and the University of the Arts, London.