My work changes as ideas evolve, but fundamentally my paintings, whether abstract or figurative, will always be about multi-layered, dense, textured surfaces.

Destroying and re-building layers is part of the working process essentially resulting in fragile and unstable surfaces where torn fragments, cracks, and eroded surface have real significance and the image itself may become obscured, blurred or ill-defined.

Biography.

After a life spent working in the catering trade and running her own business Bren went ‘from pans to paint’ and in 2003 gained a BA Hons degree in Fine Art from the University of Hull.
She has shown work widely in U.K. galleries and has exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and the Ruth Borchard Portrait Prize.

She has work in the Priseman Seabrook collection of 21st Century Art and ArtUK.

Before her move to West Yorkshire Bren was selected as a regular exhibitor in North Yorkshire Open Studios.

After a break from exhibiting, Bren is now continuing to develop her unique style of sensitive and haunting portraiture and figurative painting from her new studio in Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley.

“Bren’s unusual style produces a haunting effect that seems to reveal a lifetime of feelings expressed through colour, shadow and skin-like layers, each revealing a different phase of life. Stare into her portraits and wonder how life has weathered the faces. These portraits despite their abstract style ,are in many ways more personal and more exposing than photo – perfect portraits which through their neatness can be emotionally more obscure. They say more about the moment than a practiced grin.”

“Turning Heads; The Art of Bren Head” by Lucy Boyd