Hazel Chalk

Hazel Chalk’s practice as a portrait artist concentrates on the process of painting from photographs, exploring the unusual relationships that photographs, with their reduced field of vision, suggest.  

Since graduating with a First Class degree in Fine Art: Painting from Loughborough University, in 2008 Hazel has used old photographs to create individual and group portraits.  Her paintings have been exhibited in Bedford Street Gallery, Vanilla Galleries and at Milton Keynes Arts for Health. She begins an MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s in London in September 2009.

Hazel is taking three group portraits to the Biennale, all of them created from old discarded photographs.  After completing one painting, she then decided to use this as the starting point for a further two for the Biennale. 

Hazel says: “These paintings are created from snapshots of the same group of people. I hope that the connections between the paintings will encourage viewers to use their visual awareness and imagination to interact with the paintings.  I want the characters within the paintings to be resurrected by encouraging the viewer to create narratives around them.’

Looking ahead to the Biennale, Hazel says: “I think it is an excellent chance to showcase my work to a large audience and I am also looking forward to seeing everyone else’s work.”