Since graduating from Falmouth College of Arts in 1998, Bath based artist Georgia Cox has achieved a reputation for her paintings of intricate flower compositions using oil and gold leaf. Patterning, repetition, texture and the highly detailed observation of natural forms have become the hallmark of her work. As well as the natural world, inspiration comes from armour, quilting, tiles and jewellery.
Georgia has exhibited at venues including the National Portrait Gallery, Mercers Hall, Mall Galleries and the Royal West of England Academy. She is a member of Bath Society of Artists and has twice won the Public Choice Prize at annual exhibitions. Her piece 'For Emma' was used on the album 'Beekeeper' by Steve Wickham. The Brian Sinfield Gallery has represented her for 3 years.
Georgia explains "I am a painter who uses the natural world as source and inspiration for my work. Using oil paint, I explore the sensual characteristics of flowers and plants, capturing their essence by enhancing their velvety, crepe and pearlescent qualities. There is a melancholic beauty to the flora I work with, its decay has a poignancy that fascinates me. I experiment with harmonious, vibrant, combinations of colour as well as Gold/Copper/Silver leaf for its opulent and shimmering qualities, building up layers that I then score, rub away and re-paint into a textural palimpsest. Inspiration comes from the work of Dutch Flower painters of the 17th century, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Japanese antique screens and Tudor portraits for their rich qualities of colour, intricate detail and skilled craftsmanship.
Repetition and pattern have been central themes in my work since I started painting. I see this as Gestalt, a building up of small elements to make a whole which is perceived as more than the sum of its parts. Armoury, quilting and tiles are sources of inspiration as well as an interest in Mandalas and the Fibonacci sequence for their detailed and mathematical approaches to pattern and form in nature. I tend not to work to a plan, instead, I enjoy the serendipity of working from the middle outwards. It is an intricate, organic stepping stone approach and process of emergence and discovery."
"To see a world in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour." William Blake
