Art: Paintings of south coast wanderings wash up in Hampstead

The OED definition of beached is: “stranded, grounded, high and dry abandoned, deserted, marooned”.

This, says artist Pam Walker “can be likened to the creative process which can start with a sense of dislocation and abandonment. I have attempted to explore this in my work over the last 18 months”.

Collages and oils inspired by her wanderings along the beaches of the south coast including Dungeness in Kent are on display at the Peggy Jay Gallery at Burgh House, Hampstead until May 2.

Beached continues Walker’s fascination with lost landscapes, wastelands and desolate places “fleetingly remembered and glimpsed out of the corner of my eye”. With a studio at Arlington House, Camden Town, many of her work has responded more to the urban landscape, specifically areas under reconstruction such as Willesden Junction, King’s Cross and in her last exhibition Higher Faster Stronger, the 2012 London Olympic Site.

“My subject matter usually emerges in the process of making the work...it reveals itself during the process and is always transformed from my original intention. There is a magical stage when the work ‘paints itself’.”

Trained at St Martins in the 1980s Walker has had five solo exhibitions and work shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Mall Galleries.

She runs regular collage workshops using materials including text, photos, postcards, and fabrics exploring methods of constructing images with the emphasis on playfulness and experimentation rather than formal teaching.