Cut Outs

Developed through a combination of photography, drawing, cut outs and painting, Olivia’s work explores the different shapes and forms in nature and how these can be manipulated to create an impression of a specific place or moment. It is the meticulous and laborious process of removing sections of paper by hand with a scalpel that drew Olivia to paper cutting. The practice is incredibly meditative requiring almost endless patience - with some works taking over three hundred hours to complete.

Each work is based on a photograph Olivia takes and the drawings she then makes from these photographs. The work is largely focused around nature, with the different shapes and forms offered up by the natural landscape providing continuous source material. It is the process of abstracting and reducing these forms down to simple lines and silhouettes whilst still retaining a sense of what they are that interests Olivia. A silhouette of a tree in winter paired down to black lines still conveys the bleakness of the trees during the winter months. A vibrant scene of crossing vines and complicated palm leaves conveys the chaos of a tropical jungle.

Sculpture

Olivia creates limited edition sculptures handcrafted from copper, bronze and steel. Arbor was inspired by Britain’s native oak trees with the copper or bronze depicting the stark shapes of the trees in winter, branches intertwined. Carduus takes its name from the Thistle flower that inspired the pattern circling around the light source and is laser cut from black steel before being finished in a matt black patina.