I love colour and abstract forms -they are everywhere! I grew up with an enduring love of nature (sea, landscape, flowers) and spirituality is important to me too. I have been a Christian for most of my life and a lay minister (recently retired) for the past 10 years in the Kent village where I now live, so worship and reflection are fundamental in my life. Often I paint after such times.

Art has always been important. I try to express my feelings about the beauty around and the deeper emotions we experience in the course of life. I call them ‘intuitive abstracts’ sometimes inspired by nature or sea that I love, historical places with a modern twist, or based on life experience – both dark and light, perhaps easier to think of as Inner and Outer Landscapes. I use mainly acrylic, inks and oil paint and tend to paint in series, anything from 4 -10 paintings together with a common colour palette and theme before moving on.

I ran a small local Art Club experimenting with expressive forms of art as well as some online and in-person tuition from 2020-22. Now I work from my studio in the back garden and people find me. I am also registered with Art Profile as a tutor (www.artprofile.co.uk).

Stopped from studying art at school, to get a proper job, it was always an interest: visiting galleries, sketching, photography and designing various gardens as I moved around. Then in 2008 I took early retirement from a career in health care due to chronic illness and began to paint – see bio for details of art training. I have exhibited locally, at national art fairs, and in 2017 was shortlisted in the National Open Art Competition for ‘A Slice of Life 1’. Paintings are in homes in the UK, Eire and Canada. I am a member of the Pure Arts Group, the Sevenoaks Visual Arts Forum and South East Open Studios, where I have been ACO for Malling area. My work is currently in the ING Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London and in the Kaleidoscope Gallery in Sevenoaks.

Art gives me the mental space and freedom to process things as I become absorbed in it. It lifts me up and uses my creativity which for many years was focused on the garden! I use intuitive as part of my description having honed it for many years working as a psychotherapist and it is so needed in abstract artwork. You may also see influences from the Hispanic world as I learned Spanish in Costa Rica and spent a number of years working in Peru. My last visit was in 2015, my friendships there will endure for ever.

Art can help to lift us out of the everyday, open our eyes to what is around, not just the material world we inhabit, but colours and experiences, be they physical, emotional, mental or spiritual: the life journeys we take. This artistic journey is not one I ever thought to make, but I love the experience and hope you will join me! “

Elaine Almond 2023

Art Education

2008 – 2015 Self taught plus short courses with Caroline Hulse FRSA (Oxfordshire) & Martin Kinnear (Norfolk), member of local art group

2016 3 month Oil Painting course, with Caroline Hulse FRSA

2017 6 month Intensive Course in Abstract Art with Caroline Hulse FRSA

2017-18 Mentored by Caroline Hulse FRSA

2019 12 week online Abstract course with Nicholas Wilton

Current & Upcoming Exhibitions

2024 May 10 -12 Wrotham Arts Festival

2024 May 3-5 Rochester Art Fair

024 21 March - 5May ‘Forecast’ Open call group show at Bannatynes Hotel, Hastings UK 2 paintings included

Past solo exhibitions:

2024 March ‘Working on it’ Group show of the Fine Art Professional Development course

023 November - Jan 2024 SVAF Group Exhibition at Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks

2023 Sept - November. Solo Exhibition at Next Door Hextable, Kent with St Peter’s Church

2022 Sept/October ‘Free to Roam’ Pure Arts Group - Solo Show and artist in residence at Bannatynes Hotel, Hastings

2022 August Solo exhibition at the Red Door Gallery Rye, East Sussex

2021 April Solo Exhibition at the Red Door Gallery Rye, East Sussex

2018, 2016 Solo Exhibition in Borough Green Library, Kent

Past Group Exhibitions

2023 November ING Discerning Eye annual exhibition at Mall Galleries, London: 1 painting accepted (Open Call).

2023 May - August 4 paintings in Kata Jewellery, Tunbridge Wells

2028 -2023 South East Open Studios

2023 March - August: ‘Connected’ 4 paintings in a Pure Arts Group Exhibition at Bannatynes Hotel, Hastings TN38 8EZ

2023‘Encircled by Red’ in SVAF group exhibition ‘RED’ in Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks, for Chinese New Year and a display from the British Library.

2022 Oct - March 2023 ‘On the Horizon’ 3 pieces , part of Pure Arts Group’s ‘Art 360’ virtual and actual exhibition in Hastings.

April -July 2022 ‘In the Making’: Pure Arts Group exhibition at Bannatynes Hotel, Hastings

Jan -Feb 2022. Guest Artist at the Artspring Gallery, Tonbridge TN9 1BX

Dec 2021 - Jan 2022 SVAF Open, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks. ‘Shoreline 1’ exhibited.

2022, 2019, 2017 & 2015 May Wrotham Arts Festival, Kent

2022, 2021 & 2019 November, 2018 July ‘Brushworks’ Exhibition in Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks. My work used in publicity

2021 28 Sept -1 November Under the Rainbow Group Exhibition, Bluewater Kent

2022, 2021 September: Group Exhibition at Coblands Garden Centre, Sundridge, Kent

2021 September: ‘Clouds Lifting’ exhibited at Artspring Gallery Tonbridge (Open call)

2020 December: Christmas Art Fair at the Oxmarket Gallery Chichester, Sussex

2020 October: ‘A Window on my Soul’ shown at ‘Emergent Vison’ in Peckham, South London by The Uncovered Collective (Open Call)

2020 October: ‘Where Earth & Heaven Meet’ shown at the month long Escape Exhibition, Artspring Gallery, Tonbridge, Kent (Open Call)

2020 August Exhibition, at the Red Door Gallery Rye, East Sussex, lead with 2 artist colleagues

2019 December: @Derek’s Room, Studio 3 Gallery, University of Kent Arts Department, juried exhibition. ‘Rain on my Soul’ shown.

2019 November ‘A Centred Journey’ Exhibition - lead artist with 2 others, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks Library, Kent

2019 November ‘Showcase’ Exhibition at St Julian’s Golf Club, Sevenoaks Kent, work used in publicity.

2018 November ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: curated, coordinated and exhibited the art section of Commemorative Flower and Art exhibition in Borough Green, 2018

2018 August Summer Exhibition Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, Sevenoaks, Kent

2017 June, Exhibition at Joe Daisy Studio and Gallery, Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, end of Abstract Course there

2016 May Open Studio at Joe Daisy Studio, Mapledurham Oxfordshire

Art Fairs

2020, 2019, 2018 March, Surrey Contemporary Art Fair

2019 February Bath Art Fair

2018 April, Reading Contemporary Art Fair

Collections:

Artwork in private collections in UK, Eire & Canada

Curatorial Projects:

2019 Curated ‘A Centred Journey’ Exhibition, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Sevenoaks Library, Kent

2018 ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: curated, coordinated and exhibited in the art section of this WW1 Commemorative Flower and Art exhibition in Borough Green, Kent

2016, 2014 Curated small local group exhibitions, Borough Green, Kent

Awards: 2017 Shortlisted in the National Open Art Competition with ‘A Slice of Life 1’

Memberships:

Sevenoaks Visual Arts Forum since 2019

Pure Arts Group since October 2021

South East Open Studios since 2018. ACO for Malling area in 2023

Elaine Almond 2023