Early in Partou’s career, landscape provided the main inspiration for her work. The quest of the individual for the divine was a developing theme. A fascination for religious iconography was manifested in depictions of the overlooked corners of church interiors. Everyday objects such as books, lamps and chairs inhabited her images of domestic scenes, suggesting a desire to capture the essence of her long-lost childhood home. Her canvases at this time were dominated by an energetic application of heavily impastoed yellow, which for her represented the spiritual. Self-portraits, some of them nude, also formed an important part of her oeuvre, not only as a means of asserting her identity as a woman and a painter, but in order to reveal her intuitive self. Partou's canvases bring a fresh note to the long established tradition of story telling. In scale her works range from a few inches to several feet high, with characteristic free brushwork and an immediately recognisable energetic handling of layers of paint. She has been inspired by the writing and illustrations of William Blake, and her work explores a personaljourney of self-discovery. Through these vibrant, painterly canvases, she draws the viewer into her dream like memory. Her own language is highly original, evolving a personal mythology of motifs and symbols that include lovers, sleepers, dreamers and readers, set within evocative interiors or luminous landscapes. The paintings from the last few months of her life reflect a change of mood. The intense energy of her earlier canvases has given way to a more contemplative application of paint, as a consequence of her failing strength. In ‘40 Nights and 40 Days’ she reclines, in classical garb, resting her elbow on a pile of books – an indication, perhaps, that her work is done. She seems to be gazing beyond the present, the outstretched hand ready to guide her on the next step of her journey.
Solo exhibitions
2013 Portraits Beyond Self, Art First, London 2008 In The Face of Wonder, The Exchange, Penzance 2007 Art First, London 2005 The Grey Syllable, Art First, London 2004 Thought Paintings, Art First, London 2003 Entering the Visionary Zone, Tate St Ives 2002 Art Space Gallery, London 2000 Art Space Gallery, London 1999 Royal Cornwall Museum 1998 Newlyn Art Gallery 1997 Thornton-Bevan Arts, London
Group exhibitions
2010 Meetings Of Dreams, The Wills Lane Gallery, St. Ives 2009 ZOOM – Looking Back/Looking Forward, Art First, London 2007 Art Now Cornwall, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall 2006 12x12 Art First, London 2004 Spoilt for Choice: A Christmas Show, Art First, London 1999 Four Young Artists, Art Space, London 1998 In/Sight, Exeter University 1997 Gallery Artists I, Reeds Wharf Gallery, London 1996 Landscapes from Penwith, Hastings Museum and Gallery 1996 Spring Open, Connaught Brown, London 1995 John Moores Exhibition 19, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1994 Response to Landscape, Beatrice Royal Gallery, Southampton 1993 Salthouse Gallery, St Ives 1992 Carpenters Road Studios, London 1990 Works on Paper, The Boundary Gallery, London 1989Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester
