Chloe Bonfield paints with swift, liquid brushstrokes on layers of butter muslin, either stretched or softly pinned to the wall. Her marks emerge from a place of flow or from a sudden, urgent need; gestures made quickly, instinctively, in response to the moment.
As a new parent working mostly alone, Bonfield has shifted from a search for communal, premeditated art-making to a more immediate and intuitive practice, created in stolen fragments of time, between nursery drop-offs and the quiet rituals of home life. These works are made to be shared after the moment has passed.
Her figurative studies begin in the studio, en plein air, or are drawn from found imagery. She captures the awkward, in-between expressions of her human subjects; often caught gazing elsewhere, to some unseen place. They appear adrift in forests or suspended within domestic interiors, their dislocated presence echoing a kind of quiet dissociation. These figures reflect the inner landscape of caregiving. The fleeting escapist fantasies that offer brief refuge amid the intensity of daily domestic life, moments that float between deep presence and the need for self-soothing retreat.
Bonfield’s paintings and drawings are held in private collections across the UK and Turkey. Her recent exhibitions include Milieu Studio in St Ives (2023), Alma Artspace in Newquay Orchard (2023–24), and Potager Gardens (2024). She was awarded a scholarship by Stiftung Kunstfonds in 2022 for a collaborative project with Anna-Luise Lorenz. Her other notable projects include a residency at Unit3 funded by the Tresorys Fund (2022) and coordination of the Stile Collective, supported by Creative Kernow.
Image Credit: Imogen Rosemary
