UP CLOSE with the Teddington artist and resident exhibiting at the Barbican

By Emily Dalton

11th Oct 2023 | Local Features

A Teddington resident is displaying an art exhibition at the Barbican Library in central London.

Brazilian-born Stephanie Wilkinson has lived in Teddington for over 40 years, and has been creating art in her local studio in almost half that time.

The exhibition, 'ColourBurst', features a myriad of different materials including glass work, fabric and canvas paintings.

Speaking of her inspiration for the exhibition, Stephanie said: "As an artist, I collect ideas and inspiration from wherever I go.

"I feel a little bit like a Magpie. I go round just looking."

Exhibition at the Barbican Library. (Photo: Emily Dalton)

Stephanie said she likes to "zoom in" on something she finds "really interesting" that other people may not notice. For instance, she recalls a time when she was "absolutely fixated" on tiles around a swimming pool: how they have been made or put together.

"I think it is because you realise somebody has thought about that, and made it happen," she said.

Born in Brazil, Stephanie moved to the UK when she was 11; but she still considers her birth-country her home.

Her artwork -from the hypnotic glass hangings, the delicate jewellery to the demanding acrylic pictures and loud canvases- explode with colour and character.

Stephanie uses her designs on a myriad of materials. (Photo: Emily Dalton)

"Brazil is a driving force," Stephanie admitted. "There's things that happen when you're a child that are very formative."

Talking about her home in Teddington, she said she tries to recreate Brazil in her surroundings by keeping green vegetation around her and connecting with her history.

"You carry it with you," she said. "You don't just go from one place to another."

Not an escapism, Stephanie sees her artistry as "somewhere to put things." If she's been inspired by a place, she will put it down as a record, which she argues is different to a photograph or writing. "It's somewhere to put ideas using paint and canvas," Stephanie adds.

Stephanie sees her art as somewhere to put things. (Photo: Emily Dalton)

Teddington's bountiful natural environment may not be the inspiration for Stephanie's work, rather- it where she goes for calm. "I love the river, and I live the park- it's my restoration and relaxation," she said.

Stephanie "got back into art" when she started attending classes while she was living in Indonesia in the 1990s.

She said: "I always liked drawing and I remember winning a prize for drawing at school when I was seven. It was a competition for the 'Day of the Birds', this was in Brazil."

For many years she had forgotten about this event, but continued to express herself artistically. She decorated the letter headers she would send to her friends during the school holidays.

Stephanie returned from Indonesia to the UK and started doing A-levels and foundation courses and eventually completed a degree at Wimbledon.

"There's so much to learn and a lot that is very teachable," Stephanie said. "People say 'I'm just not good at art' as if it's a fact of life, and it's not."

She added: "A lot of it you can learn. I learned a lot of basic school by being taught the basic tools of drawing and understanding tone and colour."

Canvas at the Barbican. (Photo: Emily Dalton)

Over 12 years, "little by little", while she was raising a family, Stephanie grew her qualifications and eventually got her own Teddington studio in 2004.

Describing her artistic process, Stephanie said the output is as a surprise to me to her it is to anybody.

"I have to trust the process," she explains. "Putting some colour down, drawing into it, putting some more colour down, drawing into it. Leaving it, coming back to it."

Sometimes forms appear to her, and other times Stephanie engineers them herself. Taking a life of its own, she explained: "The painting almost starts to dictate to me what happens next.

"It's labour and imagination: you use both."