NPA Lab | 2022
CS Moncrieff + Lizzie Shannon-Little + Sophie Anne Wyth
Born in London, CS Moncrieff now resides in rural Hants, working in a derelict former Lloyds bank. Of her practice, she says, “My paintings are rhythmical visualisations, often exploring the relationship between femaleness and the land. I like to question structures of power – but also our cognitive dissonance with nature.”
Lizzie Shannon-Little is an abstract painter and mixed media artist. Her art is an exploration in connection, colour, and bold mark making. She is part of the Old School Art Collective in Oxford, an Associate of OVADA art space, and member and Trustee of WOA Gallery. She has exhibited works throughout the UK and sold her works worldwide.
Sophie Anne Wyth is a French painter based in the UK. She became a painter through undergoing art therapy and started her art career alongside directing her fashion business. She keeps from her experience in the luxury fashion industry a sense of aesthetic, and brings elegance and beauty to her paintings. Wyth will be spending the month of February in Paris producing work alongside other artists and will present an end of residency exhibition.
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CS Moncrieff
‘And her pale fire she snatched from the sun’ (2023)
Acrylic and oil on canvas (92 x 82cm)
In this recent series, I favour vigorous energetic directional marks. The tilted floor plane creates uncertainty. Life forces are at play, whether it’s the wind, mountains, horses or the narrative itself. From the LAB meetings, a freshness has pulsated through my practice - the transparent trees, the exaggerated horses, the beating dove wings morphing into the landscape are a shift from where I was at, thanks to our peer mentoring.
CS Moncrieff
‘Drifts and the drifters’ WIP (2023)
Acrylic and oil on canvas (120 x 90cm)
In this recent series, I favour vigorous energetic directional marks. The tilted floor plane creates uncertainty. Life forces are at play, whether it’s the wind, mountains, horses or the narrative itself. From the LAB meetings, a freshness has pulsated through my practice - the transparent trees, the exaggerated horses, the beating dove wings morphing into the landscape are a shift from where I was at, thanks to our peer mentoring.
CS Moncrieff
‘Fire night’ (2023)
Watercolour and pencil sketch (15 x 21cm)
In this recent series, I favour vigorous energetic directional marks. The tilted floor plane creates uncertainty. Life forces are at play, whether it’s the wind, mountains, horses or the narrative itself. From the LAB meetings, a freshness has pulsated through my practice - the transparent trees, the exaggerated horses, the beating dove wings morphing into the landscape are a shift from where I was at, thanks to our peer mentoring.
CS Moncrieff
‘‘Untitled study’ ( (2023)
Watercolour and pencil sketch (15 x 21cm)
In this recent series, I favour vigorous energetic directional marks. The tilted floor plane creates uncertainty. Life forces are at play, whether it’s the wind, mountains, horses or the narrative itself. From the LAB meetings, a freshness has pulsated through my practice - the transparent trees, the exaggerated horses, the beating dove wings morphing into the landscape are a shift from where I was at, thanks to our peer mentoring.
CS Moncrieff
‘Horses of the Goddess of rebirth’ (2022)
Oil on postcard (15 x 10.5cm)
In this recent series, I favour vigorous energetic directional marks. The tilted floor plane creates uncertainty. Life forces are at play, whether it’s the wind, mountains, horses or the narrative itself. From the LAB meetings, a freshness has pulsated through my practice - the transparent trees, the exaggerated horses, the beating dove wings morphing into the landscape are a shift from where I was at, thanks to our peer mentoring.
CS Moncrieff
Untitled sketch’ (2022)
Watercolour and pencil (15 x 21cm)
In this recent series, I favour vigorous energetic directional marks. The tilted floor plane creates uncertainty. Life forces are at play, whether it’s the wind, mountains, horses or the narrative itself. From the LAB meetings, a freshness has pulsated through my practice - the transparent trees, the exaggerated horses, the beating dove wings morphing into the landscape are a shift from where I was at, thanks to our peer mentoring.
Reflections on peer to peer mentoring
CS Moncrieff
Although we’re in three far-flung pockets of the UK, we’ve zoomed punctually, fortnightly since November. We had informal crits, developing ideas. This progressed to sharing ambitions. We set tasks – for example, seeking out an artist or gallerist for collaboration. Not only have the LAB sessions resulted in the above but I’ve a debut duo show planned (thanks to the Lab, I approached an artist I admire); an Auction Collective studio sale (a first – we set this among our assignments); and a bursary application submitted for ten paintings. So fruitful has the LAB been, we’re continuing meeting for the unforeseeable future.
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Lizzie Shannon-Little
Study #1 for ‘Mapping our bodies’ (2022)
Watercolour pencil, collage, felt tip, and acrylic pen, on paper (21 x 30cm
My project focused on the conception of a new body of figurative work exploring the (lack of) connectivity we feel with our bodies and the spaces we inhabit, particularly delving into the female experience. Through the LAB, I focused on how to move from the research phase to the creation of works themselves, particularly widening my artistic influences and experimentation with materials.
Lizzie Shannon-Little
Study #2 for ‘Mapping our bodies’ (2022)
Watercolour pencil, collage, felt tip, and acrylic pen, on paper (21 x 30cm
My project focused on the conception of a new body of figurative work exploring the (lack of) connectivity we feel with our bodies and the spaces we inhabit, particularly delving into the female experience. Through the LAB, I focused on how to move from the research phase to the creation of works themselves, particularly widening my artistic influences and experimentation with materials.
Lizzie Shannon-Little
Study #3 for ‘Mapping our bodies’ (2022)
Watercolour pencil, collage, felt tip, and acrylic pen, on paper (21 x 30cm
My project focused on the conception of a new body of figurative work exploring the (lack of) connectivity we feel with our bodies and the spaces we inhabit, particularly delving into the female experience. Through the LAB, I focused on how to move from the research phase to the creation of works themselves, particularly widening my artistic influences and experimentation with materials.
Lizzie Shannon-Little
Study #4 for ‘Mapping our bodies’ (2022)
Watercolour pencil, collage, felt tip, and acrylic pen, on paper (21 x 30cm
My project focused on the conception of a new body of figurative work exploring the (lack of) connectivity we feel with our bodies and the spaces we inhabit, particularly delving into the female experience. Through the LAB, I focused on how to move from the research phase to the creation of works themselves, particularly widening my artistic influences and experimentation with materials.
Lizzie Shannon-Little
Study #5 for ‘Mapping our bodies’ (2022)
Watercolour pencil, collage, felt tip, and acrylic pen, on paper (21 x 30cm
My project focused on the conception of a new body of figurative work exploring the (lack of) connectivity we feel with our bodies and the spaces we inhabit, particularly delving into the female experience. Through the LAB, I focused on how to move from the research phase to the creation of works themselves, particularly widening my artistic influences and experimentation with materials.
Reflections on peer to peer mentoring
Lizzie Shannon-Little
I’m developing a body of work that is taking me in a new direction – moving from abstract to more figurative creations. Having the supportive feedback of two artists whose work I admire, who both work across these two art forms, was invaluable to me as I developed my ideas. Creating can be lonely, and it is hard to get perspective when researching and producing work. Having our sounding board meetings – part informal art crit, part self-help group – was the collaborative peer environment I needed. We are continuing our LAB beyond NPA and planning studio visits to each other’s studios.
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Sophie Anne Wyth
‘New Language’ Series (2022)
Oil on paper (30 x 21cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘New Language’ Series (2022)
Oil on paper (30 x 21cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘New Language’ Series (2022)
Oil on paper (30 x 21cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘Online Spring’ (2020)
Mixed media on paper (15 x 10cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘Because’ (2020)
Acrylic on paper (15 x 10cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘Current Truth’ (2022)
Oil on canvas (76 x 102cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘L’allumette et la baleine’ (2022)
Oil on paper (30 x 21cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Sophie Anne Wyth
‘The tip of’ (2022)
Oil on canvas, framed (51 x 51cm)
We mostly focused our support on the work that needs to happen beside painting in the studio. We still shared paintings in progress, and I continued developing my abstract paintings. I am seeking movement in my work, and I tried new marks in a body of smaller works, in an attempt to create the same feeling with a different vocabulary. We also discussed presentation and it inspired me to frame some of my paintings.
Reflections on peer to peer mentoring
Sophie Anne Wyth
We set up regular calls to give each other advice, support and to share artists opportunities. We did a website surgery to help understand how readable our sites are to newcomers. We also used the group as a crit for our work. We created a whatsapp group which we still regularly use for questions and we will keep our regular zoom meeting for the foreseeable future. This group is precious and helps me to feel connected to artists who are facing similar challenges. It is great to support each other in difficult times as well as celebrate each other’s wins.