Penny Chivers-Stanley

Mental landscapes are a central theme of Penny’s work, responding to ever-shifting emotional states and investigating individuation as an embodied means of deep listening. What happens when we slow down? Words from meditative, stream of consciousness journalling, her own poetry or song lyrics, often start her process, usually written in charcoal and obliterated, sometimes rewritten or allowed to show, as written meaning and mark making merge in new communication.
Alongside journalling, she walks in quiet landscapes especially focusing on open skies and water (analogous to space, light and freedom), which she photographs and films as a memory aid to the emotional response to self within that place. As a deep listening practice, she makes sound recordings which trace particular energies. This includes bird sound, especially pigeons; a calming rhythm but a metaphor for negative perceptions and ‘outsiders’. Whilst contributing to mental imagery which blur within the paint process, these digital processes are also collaged into film, investigating our delicate relationship with time.
Collaging is also used as a tool to remember feeling or understand unconscious thought through playful curiosity, sometimes feeding the painting process and often standing alone as a visual mental exploration. Painting reflects evolving mind states; Penny encourages paint, pastel and drawn marks to pool, bleed and flow by spontaneously responding to accident and controlled manipulation through layering, over time. Everything from these methodologies gathers like a storm pouring out in the work as a cathartic unconscious process.
When in this flow state, Penny reaches a desired stillness. pennychiversstanley.com
@pennychiversstanley