Painting - Realism
Deborah Last
PAINTER
Artist Deborah Last lives and works in the Cotswolds. She works directly from life and from memory to create light-filled work relating to the landscape and the connections we make with it as humans. In 2020 she graduated with an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from Plymouth University. She has been long-listed for the Jackson’s Painting Prize, in 2021 and 2022. She was Artist in residence at the National Trust’s Bucks Mills Artist Cabin in August 2022 and the inaugural visual artist in residence for Appledore Book Festival in September 2022. She has been featured in Devon Life Magazine and on BBC Spotlight and is a regular guest on BBC Radio Devon.
Deborah explores the landscape through a daily painting practice, capturing the light and weather of the changing seasons. Her contemporary style, expressive colour and intriguing brush strokes blend with a traditional form of art to create unique and beautiful paintings. Having spent 7 years living in India working as an artist and tutor, her work retains the love of colour and story that so inspired her whilst she was there.
She is completed an en plein air project to paint the landscape outside and from life for every day of 2022. This project has been highly collaborative encouraging others to be in the landscape and to paint there. In 2015 she completed a previous 365 Project to paint the landscape every day for a year though these were not all done from life These projects are about researching and exploring the landscape and the ways that Deborah expresses her connection to the locations she is painting. She co-owned Buckingham Art School from 2008 to 2016 where she and a fellow artist taught art to over 120 adults each week.
Moving to North Devon at the end of 2016 enabled her to take her work in a new direction joining the MA programme at Plymouth University in September 2017 and renovating a space in her house for a studio. These last few years have been about establishing her current practice and balancing that with teaching a small number of art classes. Her daily painting practice has become like a practice of contemplation and meditation that then feeds into the work she does back in the studio. Her MA work explored the meanings of motherhood, family and faith in the context of separation and a global pandemic.
Her work is held in private collections throughout the UK and abroad. She regularly runs art classes from her studio and some online classes from her Facebook page, Drawing and Painting with Debs Last. She offers one-to-one support and coaching for emerging artists and workshops for wellbeing days within the workplace. She also runs art holidays and day workshops.
