Sally Swingewood is obsessive.
If she cannot paint she will draw. If she cannot draw she will
write, or construct - sculptures, boxes, book... whatever - using any
materials at hand.
She is also endlessly
fascinated by people and places, specifically London and those who call
it home. The energy of the city, the grubby, changing beauty of it all,
is at the heart of Swingewood's work. In her cityscapes she tries to
capture the paradoxes:
the shifting,
mesmeric, dynamism that twinkles, jewel-like, despite the litter,
the grime, the crime, the pollution... In her portraits she examines
the relationships the city dwellers have with each other and with the
city itself. She understands the yearnings to run away, discover
an Eden beyond the M25 and yet knows it is an illusion (having tried to
find it herself); she wants to shout out for the city kids who have
become demonised because of their fashion choices; she is intrigued and
in awe of those who risk everything to leave their homeland and start
afresh in the UK's capital. They all connect. They are all
neighbours, potential friends and subjects of painterly examination.
