Born in Durham city in 1958, Lynda Docherty, née Snowdon, lives and works in Darlington, County Durham. Having originally studied Modern Languages and Economic Studies, she worked as a teacher. Later, with a young family, she took a part-time degree in Fine Art at Sunderland University, earning a 2i and the Anna Munday Prize for Art History. She went on to teach Art in secondary schools for a further five years. Illness and bereavement caused her to change direction. She left full time work to concentrate on her own art production, occasionally working in outreach workshops.

Originally, her interest in Art, begun at school, was a hobby and she became actively involved in the Darlington Society of Arts, where she took on roles of Club Night Organiser, then chairperson and representative on the Dover Prize Committee. She continues to chair the Committee and play a large role in the organisation and administration of the regional art competition.

'It is only in the last five years that I have determined to focus more on my own artwork and to work towards solo exhibitions. I now feel I have built up a sufficient body of work to show with pride and confidence. I now look forward to finding new opportunities and venues to show my work in the future as well as the prospect of spending more time painting and drawing.

My current work follows two strands: a continuing concern with memory and identity in old age; and contextual work, in particular, considering an artist's response to the effects of global warming and climate change.'

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My work has always been multi-layered. Photographs here cannot accurately show the depths achieved between the painting below many coats of glossy lacquer and the tactile mounds of paint above. The layers are a metaphor for the many ways in which all things past and present are connected; our lives are interwoven; we are a product of our environment, our history and interaction with others.

In terms of art production, I do not believe in the artist as originator or genius because we all owe a debt to what has gone before. I feel an artist is as much a medium through which contemporary life can be portrayed. Painting and drawing, for me, continue to offer direct ways of expressing the impact of events, external as well as internal, and of finding ways of expressing our own responses to what we experience and to stimulate a response in our spectators. The result may be an object of beauty but could just as easily be something disturbing or humorous. My contextual work, for example, deals with issues such as war and global warming.

Recently I have begun introducing Haiku (condensed verse of 17 syllables) into my work to complete the condensed thought or emotion portrayed.

Lynda Docherty
November 2012

For more detailed information, see the panel details when clicking on each artwork or follow the red links opposite to a statement about each gallery.