'Colourful Gestures' by Silvi Schaumloeffel 6 May - 31 May 2023

Silvi is an expressive contemporary oil painter of lively abstract floral imagery. Her work is well known and can be recognised by her dynamic bold colour palette, and occasional brave addition of splashes of neon.

The first thing that strikes you is the energy and life that is represented through her use of loose brush strokes combining flat surfaces by a single application of paint merged with deliciously thick applied broad strokes. These elegant paintings contain an overall vitality, a contagious quality that is hard to resist. Silvi’s aim is to convey something personal, subjective, and emotive in a lyrical way. As she says, “The paintings don't just paint themselves; it feels as if I work and wrestle, sometimes dance with them”. These are paintings from the heart and soul and with her evocative titles Silvi invites the viewer to explore and engage with her paintings on a personal level.

The artist explains “Gestural work is, almost by definition, expressive. I have been developing the visual language for my paintings through exploring the breadth and width of colour and gesture, using playfulness, intuition and curiosity with the technical elements anchored in the history of art and painting. I want to make art that communicates directly with you and speaks to all your senses. The narrative is in the paint itself, laid bare by way of application. The large swaths of paints, the drips, the flicks, punchy pinks and kooky greens and sweeping gestures and brush marks, all these traces of the creative process are an essential part of my work. I hope the paintings in this exhibition envelope you like a hug and make you smile, and I’m so pleased to have this opportunity to show my work once more in this beautiful gallery space here in Burford.”

Silvi was born in Germany and is now living and working from her studio in West Oxfordshire. Her work can be found in collections throughout the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, the US, and The British Virgin Islands.

Painting shown here: 'Still in Love with Them' | oil on canvas | 102 x 102 cm

To view all available paintings by Silvi please click here