My love of colour, texture, line and form strongly influence my painting and design process. Each painting is an adventure! I always start with the representational world - a landscape, still life, flowers or figures - but my process quickly takes me on an artistic journey towards a more personal and expressive, abstracted vision.
Vivienne initially trained as a linguist and has a BA Hons Degree and PGCE from King’s College, London. In the 1970’s, her husband's job took her to North Africa for a few years, where her love of creativity was given an opportunity to flourish. During this time, she taught herself machine knitting and weaving, and began to create fashion items for local shops. Upon her return to the UK, her love of textiles and design initially led her to study pattern cutting in Richmond, and then Fashion and Design at West Middlesex University. After this, she helped produce knitwear for Sandra Rhodes and taught Creative Machine Knitting at Richmond Adult College.
In the 1980’s, she was co-founder and director of Blakeley Wilson, which produced hand-crafted bijou buttons and jewellery, and later rain capes. Her designs sold primarily in Liberty, Harrods and Trois Suisses. She also designed instruction leaflets for the polymer clay companies, Fimo and Cernit.
Painting came later when, in 2003, Vivienne moved to Qatar. Here she studied drawing and painting at the Creativity Centre, mixed media painting at the Atelier Li Chevalier, and both mixed media and print at the Visual Art Centre and Katara. Inspired by design, the visual and surface textures of textiles, and much influenced by the bold coloured, abstracted art of many Middle Eastern artists, Vivienne sought to learn more about how to incorporate these elements into her new work. She then studied Art, Design and Media for two years at IDI, Strathclyde University and exhibited work with the Visual Art Centre, the French Cultural Centre and Katara.
In 2013, she relocated back to Surrey, England. Along side her painting, Vivienne continues her artistic growth with her work at the Virtual Art Academy.
Vivienne works mostly in acrylics and oils, but as a mixed media artist, she also incorporates graphite, charcoal, pastels, inks and collage - in fact, any media which increases her freedom to work expressively. She also applies paint with brushes, painting tools, knives and anything that comes to hand for mark making.