Wendy Healey
Artwork for Wendy Healey
Details
How would you describe the work you do and why?
I gather natural and manufactured materials from my environment exploring themes of transformation and emergence. Imbued with memories, emotions, thoughts and dreams, my making fuses and transforms disparate materials such as debris, mud, brambles, bark, muslin, clay, plastic, paper to create two dimensional mixed media and three dimensional sculptural work. Imbued with a life of their own, my work explores the essence of being human. Our beginnings, our endings, how our bodies and minds interact with our environment. Our surroundings form us, make us what and who we are psychologically, emotionally, socially and physically. My sculptures and paintings occupy an ephemeral slippery place between our internal and external worlds.
For you what does being an artist mean?:
Being an artist means exploration and discovery. Creating interactive stimulating artwork, that encourages curiosity and reflection to explore our internal and external landscapes
Describe what you call yourself/your practice?:
As an artist I explore materials and techniques. Inspiration for my making lies in the physicality of my surroundings and within me, I make things intuitively. I create paintings, collage, sculptural forms/non- forms, ceramics and installations influenced by my rural home in Herefordshire, my beginnings in Vancouver, Canada and feral childhood in the Midlands. My practice absorbs my surroundings.
Your practice & activities include e.g workshops, teaching:
I exhibit, attend residencies and participate in and run workshops individually and as part of collectives including Artlab 23, Imposure and Artlandish locally, nationally and internationally.
I have published in magazines and books including:
Healey Wendy, Gaia (2023. pp120-21) 101 contemporary artists and more, Collect Art. Tibilisi Georgia, Volume 2. 2023.
Healey Wendy Winged ( (9 January - 8 February 2026) RBSA Friends Catalogue Friends Open all Media Exhibition RBSA Birmingham.U.K
CV & Education, relevant & leading to your artistic practice:
1990 M SocSc, Birmingham University. U.K.
2000 Accredited Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), London. U.K.
2022 First Class BA (Hons) Painting Degree, Open College of Arts (OCA), Barnsley. U.K.
‘In-Between’ Wendy Healey, solo Exhibition showcasing BA (Hons) Degree with Open College of Arts, (OCA), (April 28-May 14 2022) Direct Action Art UK (DAA) Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. U.K.
Exhibitions in the last 3 years:
Annual Open Exhibition, (8 January- February 26 2024), The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, Conwy, Wales. U.K.
Friends Open all Media Exhibition, (11 January- 10 February 2024), RBSA, Birmingham.U.K
Annual Open Exhibition, (8 January- 26 February 2024), The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, Conwy, Wales. U.K.
Curious Space: Transitions in Landscape (9-20 July 2024), Willesden Gallery London.UK.
Open Studios St Mary’s Church Ross-on-Wye, herefordshire art week h.Art, (7-15 September 2024) Hereford U.K.
Friends Open all Media Exhibition (9 January - 8 February 2025) RBSA Birmingham.U.K
Artlandish Imposure Exhibition ( January- March 2025) 7 Gomond Street Hereford. U.K.
Open Studios St Mary’s Church Ross-on-Wye, herefordshire art week h.Art, (6-14 September 2025) Hereford U.K.
Friends Open all Media Exhibition ( 8 January - 7 February 2026) RBSA Birmingham.U.K
Artlandish ‘There’s No Place like Home’ Exhibition ( 23 January-7 February 2026) 7 Gomond Street Hereford. U.K.