Theresa Thompson is dazzled by the colours of an Iberian summer

Colour rarely thrums in an English summer. Not like in a Spanish one. There, in the ferocious midsummer heat it pounces off walls, multiplying its tones as it goes. Foreseeable therefore that Florence Amey, a gifted young British artist who has been living and working in Spain since 2011, is deeply influenced by colour.

Amey’s exhibition of paintings on show at Art Jericho, Oxford is titled ‘Alegría’ from the Spanish word for joy. And the over 60 abstract expressionist paintings stunningly displayed on the white walls of this contemporary gallery positively sing with exuberance. Indigo and azure blues, vigorous reds, oranges, and greens combine in compositions that are at once vivid and charged yet harmonious.

Jenny Blyth ,of Art Jericho, said: “Colour is her voice, but not at the expense of form. Layering appears to come easily, so that we are drawn through one portal to explore another. Her paintings shimmer, a moment’s kaleidoscope on the page.”

The 25-year-old’s Bristol Fine Arts degree after Foundation at Brighton City College were preliminaries to studying Fine Arts at Seville University, and now working from her studio in Seville. She displays “an extraordinary confidence, unusual in an artist so young,” Blyth said. Drawing on her 25-year background in contemporary art, including 12 years as a curator at the Saatchi Gallery, London from 1990-2002, she added, “she has natural artistic flair.”

Some of her works are Hodgkin-esque, but there are diverse references. I’m also reminded of Ivon Hitchens’ wonderful paintings, works that are neither landscape nor completely abstract. Clearly Amey finds inspiration in Howard Hodgkin’s gestural expressionism, though her works come without his integral painted frames and titles that might guide the viewer. In contrast, Amey’s paintings are all called Sin Titulo, ‘without title’, giving no clues as to subject or what might have come to her during the long hours of painting, a process she has described as an almost meditative state of mind.

Explained Amey, “whilst observation of the world is still central to my practice, my hope is that other frameworks are also influencing me. I’ve tried to make marks, colours, gestures and textures in an unconscious, intuitive way, rather than basing motifs on observed objects.”

So we viewers plunder our own histories and aspirations to read into these spirited paintings. For some the central turquoise form in Sin Titulo 3 set against indigo depths might suggest sparkling southern seas, the dots corals, fish, or bubbles. For others there are exotic landscapes to be gleaned from the wide sweeping brushstrokes. Others may simply take the works at face value, as the wonderful colour compositions they are.

There is a decorative element to these paintings, but they have a beguiling energy, a vitality to them that extends the scope. “It is not a simple joy trip,” Blyth had said. “Amey does knit together other elements, references, emotions. She is clever in her layering, the depths she creates. Layering comes easily to her, so that we are drawn through one portal to explore another.”

Where and when
Florence Amey ‘Alegria’ – at Art Jericho, King Street, Oxford, until September 13
artjericho.com