Biography

I am an architect and a contemporary fine artist living and working in Hampshire.  Born in Nairobi, I graduated as an architect from Nottingham University, worked extensively both in Kenya and in England before establishing my own architectural practice, ‘Rita Sennik Architects’ at the turn of the century.  In 2011, I enrolled at Southampton University to pursue my lifelong passion for painting. A recent Fine Art graduate from the Winchester School of Art, I am developing my practice as a painter and a sculptor.

2014 -                    Artist

2014                       Southampton University  (B.A.Fine Art)

1980 – 2011         Architect

2004                       Portsmouth University  (RIBA Pt 3)

1991                       University of  Newcastle- upon-Tyne  (M.Phil.Architecture)

1982                       Architects Association of Kenya  (RIBA Pt.3 equivalent)

1980                       University of Nottingham  (B.Arch.Architecture)

1977                       University of Nottingham  (B.A,Architecture)     

Artist’s Statement

My practice explores the emotional dynamics of being a woman, engaging the female form and face to deconstruct established precepts of the nude and portraiture. Using the frame of the gallery, the history of painting, celebrating Modernism, my work realigns itself through process and the materiality of the medium within the context of post-modernism.

Through form, I try to capture the illusive, inexplicable phenomenon of emotion, the transient, confusing, intense feelings which determine my interaction with and experience of the world, to give these a physical reality. The works are secrets divulged and shared, inviting reciprocal silent confidences in return.

Painting is my retreat, a magical process which transports me to a safe, timeless place where reason and conscience thought cease to be and every fibre of my being is immersed in transforming this wonderful creamy substance into a silent story, giving corporeality to the illusive.

I treat each work as an experiment, mood and momentum dictating how I make, which paint I use and how I orientate my surround. My methodology has evolved as I recognise an underlying urgency in my making, a need to capture the intensity of feeling within the moment. I commit form to the memory of the hand and body through repetitive sketches on paper and in air, to paint without the distraction of a physical reference but allow the subconscious to have a say and imagination to come into play. The making is spontaneous with no room for correction; and divulges unprecedented results which intrigue, surprise and delight me. The process, the texture and the tone of the paint are as relevant as the content, giving substance to the theme in this portrait of an emotion captured into a physical reality.

I perceive each painting as a presence, divulging mysteries of the making and the maker to those who know the language it speaks, enticing the viewer in its imperfection to speculate, associate, accept or reject it but to stop a while and have a dialogue with it.

Exhibitions

‘Rita Sennik: The Embrace and Shangri-la’

17^th December 2014 – 17^th January 2015

Wallspace Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester

‘tabula rasa’

Winchester School Of Art Fine Art Exhibition

10^th July – 14^th July 2014.

Barge House, Oxo Towers, London

WSA Degree Show

16^th June – 22^nd June 2014

Winchester School of Art, Winchester