“I always aspire to give each painting a sense of space and to convey an energy and rawness; I allow the painting to be open to interpretation by the viewer. Each painting is a journey, an exploration of the physicality of paint and canvas, a suggestion rather than an appearance of a particular place.”

Hettie Pittman draws much of her inspiration from the south coast of England, where she paints from her studio on the seafront in Sussex. The influence of the sea and the environment it creates is marked in Pittman’s artistic style. She thickly applies acrylic paint to the canvas with palette knives and both ends of brushes, often scraping it away again with newspaper. Through this impasto technique, she builds layers of almost abstract forms with a depth of colour and strokes, to depict suggestions of seascapes, local flora, and other subjects that she discovers through her coastal walks. Pittman’s aim is to capture the energy of a moment or view, whilst leaving elements open to the interpretation of the viewer. The captivating works that result from this process succeed in doing just that, evoking the essence of the painted subject and transporting the viewer.