Sammi Lynch begins by working from life with pastel on paper out in the landscape. These spontaneous drawings hold an energetic directness which Lynch then brings into the studio. Translating from her drawings as well as from memory, she uses oils to compose scenes that are more resolved, distilling the unruliness of the outdoors into fields of colour and expressive line. Her paintings evoke layered geologies, recalling places that feel simultaneously both geographically specific and universally shared.
Many of Lynch’s poetic terrains are unpopulated, but they often show the signs of human influence: a rickety fence or the winding ruts of tracks, for example. In one work, two figures stand sentinel in a mountain pool, as much a part of their surroundings as the rocks that litter the water’s edge, emphasising the intertwined relationships between human beings and their environments. Lynch depicts the swimmers in a moment of stillness, as though caught taking the deep breath before the plunge into the icy water. This is indicative of Lynch’s approach to capturing scenes which are frozen in time, but which are also charged with the latent potential of motion, liveliness, and change.
These more-than-geographical landscapes are suffused withhuman feeling. Through her work, Lynch investigates the effects of colour and composition on both optical and emotional levels. She repeatedly returns to the same sites to make drawings, noting how her emotions and observations vary according to seasonal shifts and her personal experiences. Several works feature bold orbs of sun or moon; the transitional light and sense of passing time in Lynch’s paintings speak to widely felt human experiences of loss and change.
Here, Lynch’s work is shown in juxtaposition with pieces by Anthony Caro and Alan Green, where her paintings constitute a lyrical counterpoint to Caro and Green’s genre-defining abstraction. All three artists share an interest in the use of line, shape, and colour to delineate spatiality.
Since graduating from the Royal Drawing School, Sammi Lynch has undertaken artist residencies in Scotland and Italy. Her solo shows to date include The Last Time We Swam at Blue Shop Gallery, London, and We Shake with Joy, We Shake with Grief at Solito Gallery, Naples. She has also participated in a number of group shows, including at Annely Juda Fine Art, Lychee One, Soho Revue, and Christie’s auction house. Lynch’s work is held in public and private collections, and her recent collaboration with Burberry was shortlisted for a V&A Award.
Text by Anna Souter