Lucy Smallbone

b. 1988, UK

Nothing in our lives except big milestones are documented as much as holidays. Photos, film and other people’s narrative often distorts them. So memories become an ever-changing truth, peppered with strong feelings and senses. You probably can’t remember the entirety of a view, but you might remember the sunlight being so bright that you had to shield your eyes, or the smell of rain on hot terracotta. It is this interplay of sensual memory that Lucy explores in her work; over saturating colour or distorting marks to try and stir memories. There is also a beauty in trying to remember something and paint it, because at some point paint and the art of painting takes over. Like memory, in painting things continously slip and change.

Lucy Smallbone studied painting at City and Guilds, followed by a Masters in Fine Art at The Slade School of Fine Art, London. Her work has been presented at solo exhibitions at Fiomano Clase, London (2018 and 2021), HSBC, London (2018), and The Space Station Gallery, London (2017). Notable group exhibitions include ‘Wish You Were Here’, Tag Fine Art (2023), ‘A Slash of Blue’, Gerald Moore Gallery (2023), ‘Landscape Artist of the Year Exhibition’, Clarendon Fine Art (2018), and the Ingram Purchase Prize, Cello Factory, London (2018). She has also received notable scholarships and awards, including the Duveen Travel Prize to Chernobyl (2015), The Haworth Trust Award for Painting (2010) and The David Ballardie Travel Award (2009).

Lucy Smallbone was a finalist for the Young Masters Art Prize in 2023.