Overview

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BIO

OVERVIEW

Versatility and admiration for the beauty of the natural world represent the major pillars of the artistic career of Antwerp artist Daisy Wilford (°1939). The diversity makes itself clear when one browses through the portfolio that the artist has already built up throughout her career. In this oeuvre one will find watercolor, pastel, acrylic, analogue and digital photography and digital prints. At the same time however, in all those works one will be able to find always a sincere respect for nature. The artist has already exhibited at various locations in Flanders and at foreign expositions in Paris, London, Florence and Geneva, among others.

The artistic vocation of Daisy Wilford manifested itself already on a very young age. As a four-year-old, in her grandmother’s handbag she could find a collection of crayons which allowed her to express herself creatively. However, it was a camera that she got as a gift for the seventh birthday that would become a major influence for her artistic development. Although Daisy Wilford in her career as an artist has been active in a variety of disciplines, the photography remained at all times a constant presence. This preference would eventually lead the artist in the digital direction in which she currently is active.

Daisy Wilford studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and with the Famous Photographers School. These formations can also be easily identified in the artist’s portfolio. In both disciplines however, the artist shows her honest love for nature. In doing so, she commits herself with an open mind to an engagement with nature, leaving it to the subject to reveal itself to the artist. This introduction activates the feel and imagination of the artist, but in the creative process it gives birth to an independent image of the inner life.

In her paintings, Daisy Wilford often shows a particular interest in the small detail, that she allows to grow into a full subject. The image of the beginning – a flower stamp, the nerve of a leaf, a grasshopper – becomes nearly abstract and seems evaporating. The oeuvre of Daisy Wilford is sensitive and is not founded by ratio, but controlled by feeling. In this way, her work becomes a real testimony of life or a perceived reflection on life in an existential way. Those who browse through her portfolio will also discover that her watercolor and pastel often seem to be a preliminary study for the later work in acrylic by the artist.

The subjects of the work of Daisy Wilford are often linked with the many travels the artist has made. This also applies to her photography, which remained in a first phase strictly in monochrome. This was also accompanied by work in the dark room, where the artist experimented with manipulated images. A natural next step was, of course, the color photography, where she used the Hasselblad to seek inspirational natural images, including deserts, mountain landscapes and foreign biotopes, where the character of reflection and angle of light in nature clearly becomes identified and investigated.

Gradually, the photography began also exploring the new digital sector, which opened for Daisy Wilford a whole new world. Here too, nature remains the source of inspiration and the philosophy of the work stays unchanged. The digital graphics tools offered her even more opportunities for further and deeper analyzes of her subjects, evolving from landscapes to details focusing on light analysis and the rhythms of the organic patterns from nature. Physical reality must make way for lyricism and contemplation, which will be enriched by the intervention of the digital tools.

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