Collection: Lucy Bristow

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I am drawn to the relationship between people and place — how we shape the land to suit our needs, and how our interventions sit, often awkwardly, within the natural world. My work explores the edges where human life and the natural landscape meet: where cities and suburbs sprawl into countryside, where roads cut through hillsides, and where buildings rise in defiance of organic form.

I am particularly fascinated by the way we inscribe ourselves onto the land. Urban sprawl creeps across fields, farmland is carved into hills, trees are felled or planted according to our desires, and gardens are neatly etched into the wild. Our presence is marked not only by structure, but by light — the glow from homes, streets, and vehicles casting an artificial dominance over the subtle, shifting tones of natural light.

These moments of contrast catch my eye: the flash of unusual flat color from a building glimpsed through trees, a perfectly straight line slicing through undulating terrain, the sudden interruption of the countryside’s rhythm by a man-made element. These visual intrusions become metaphors — for our influence, our need for control, and our often uneasy coexistence with the environment.

To me, the landscape is a living scrapbook of human history. Every mark tells a story: a forgotten settlement, a disused road, an old stone wall overtaken by moss. These remnants reveal how people have used and shaped the land over time, leaving behind visible traces of past lives and values. It feels like an ongoing tension — a quiet battle between human ambition and nature’s resilience, with the frontline constantly shifting.

Through my work, I aim to explore this tension and reflect on the layered, evolving story of our place within the landscape.

BIO

I am an artist living in Brighton, UK.

Having studied in Bristol for a Fine Art degree in the late 1980s, I have exhibited in group and solo shows since this time. I am currently a member of the Sussex Watercolour Society and the Society of Sussex painters, regularly exhibiting with these groups throughout Sussex. I also enjoy taking part in group exhibitions with the Brighton Artist Open Houses during May, this year exhibiting and co-curating at the beautiful Regency Town House with a small group of others.

I submit work to various Open Calls, this year being shortlisted for the Wales Contemporary Prize 2025. Last year I was selected as a finalist for the Jackson’s Art prize and subsequently being taken to the Affordable Art Fair Hampstead and then Bankside Gallery. Previous years include paintings selected for the Bath Open, ING Discerning Eye, Worthing Biennial and Liberation Art Gallery in Brighton.

I took part in the filming as a selected ‘pod’ artist of the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2026. This will be televised in early 2026.