Ione Parkin RWA
Ione Parkin is interested in landscape in the broadest sense – in the primal dynamics of organic life and geological process. Parkin’s artistic preoccupation with the deep history of earth formation and organic evolution evokes a time before the existence of humankind. In ‘Fragments of Infinity’, she brings together a body of work inspired by the diversity and interconnectedness of the natural world.
Parkin draws firstly on her own direct experience of varied environments, including volcanic terrain, glaciers, cave interiors and exposed rock surfaces. She also draws on secondary source material, ranging from microscopic images of biological growth and mineral composition through satellite macro-images of earth’s surface to radio-telescopic images of deep space. The paintings are never specifically topographical. They are a striking synthesis of external stimuli, transformed through the act of creation into textured images of visceral impact – mark-making and meaning combined. The final images appear freeze-framed in time and motion – uniquely specific but always eluding and defying absolute definition. The show celebrates the beauty of the raw elements of nature.
Ione Parkin has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including solo shows in Baltimore (USA), London, Cambridge and her home city of Bath. Her work is in numerous private and corporate collections.
‘Trees with Distant Fields’ and ‘Untitled’ represent her painting from the 1990s which well illustrate her early engagement with the natural world, in these instances the West Country landscape.
