Poppy Critchlow
Degree: Fine Art
University: University of Leeds
Graduation Year: 2023
New Blood Art Commentary
Poppy Critchlow is a multi-disciplinary artist in her final year at the University of Leeds. Critchlow’s oil paintings share glimpses into mundane moments of human life, evoking a sense familiarity and nostalgia. She embeds her work with secret codes of cultural context and her own subconscious anxieties, which manifest through use of striking colours and abstract patterns. Critchlow floods her palette with blue and green hues, producing an oeuvre that somewhat echoes Picasso’s Blue Period. Nevertheless, she revitalises the latter through the inclusion of her signature lemon yellow, which serves as the base for her work. This ambiguity between old and new contributes to the sense of timelessness Critchlow sets to portray.
Artist Statement
The work I produced tends to focus on people in states of intimacy, exploring moments of solitude as well as documenting the nuance in interactions between figures. Whether it be through oil painting or pencil drawing, I strive to leave the viewer with a residual sense of recollection and familiarity which I primarily communicate through clashing fabric patterns or bold and contrasting colours.
Most of my recent work has emerged from my subconscious, often from snapshots my brain has retained from childhood. Whether these snapshots are remembered through faces, feelings, patterns, textures and colour combinations, my mind is littered with images that I want to explore.