Lupe Cunha originates from Brazil from where her colours are inspired. Her main website is www.lupecunha.co.uk Since 2019 she has been working on her current body of work abandoning the subject and embracing the freedom of pure abstract work. She works in mixed media on paper or canvas. 2020 brought her stylised florals to add to her collection but colour is essentially at the heart of all she does. She works between her home studio in Sudbury and her professional art studio as part of Cuckoo Farm Studio. She has introduced in March 2021 a new display area at 83a Ballingdon St CO10 2DA showing her most recent work called Art in the Window which will be open every weekend in June.
She started her artistic life as a photographer over 40 years ago first in Chicago where she was inspired by the Abstract Expressionists and the frozen waters of Lake Michigan back in the 70's, then in Brazil where she was inspired by the colour work of Helio Oiticica and the mountains and sea of Rio and then finally settling in the UK where artists like John Piper and Patrick Heron continued to inspire her work while cooling her colours down with our milder weather.
Her work continues to be an abstract figurative style usually inspired on her own travels and photographs and memories from which she composes her paintings.
She explains how she sees abstract art...
'When you listen to an instrumental composition, you are not worried about what is being said. Well, I equate my abstract paintings with instrumentals, be it a guitar riff, a bit of jazz, or a concert symphony, you look and in your mind you feel what is being expressed, much like music. I believe that enjoyed like this viewers quickly loose their fear of not understanding abstract works which frequently stops gallery visitors enjoying these.
When you look at an abstract piece, don’t try and understand it but go where it takes you...and enjoy the ride. My abstract works are all painted to the sound of my favorite tunes and listening to these the colour compositions come alive as my mind reaches for memories, people, places, times and emotions. 'Colour As Instrumentals' is an invitation to wander...within your own mind! '
Brazilian born Lupe Cunha, has a studio in Colchester, at Cuckoo Farm and lives with her musician husband in Sudbury. Having started painting at her artist father's knee as a child, this new body of work has been developing since 2017, with showings of this work in Sudbury, Colchester, Bury St Edmunds, Wivenhoe over the last two years. A selection of her works will be seen at the George Farnham Gallery in Saxmundham in May of 2022.
She runs regular monthly workshops in Benham Gallery at CFS and in the grounds of the farm over the summer.
