Sophia Hughes

Based in Gloucestershire, Sophia’s striking abstract paintings in acrylic are often described as calming. A cool palette is interspersed with intense bursts of warmth and colour, emphasising spaces between forms delivering overall a unique modernist aesthetic. Her compositions are strong and coherent. Sophia’s talent is no surprise when you consider that she grew up with a strong artistic tradition surrounded by the work of both her father and grandfather, who were well respected British painters. Although she initially studied Fine Art at the West of England College of Art, Bristol 1959–62, she became a potter to pay the bills. Progressing to handbuilt pots and ceramic sculptures that didn’t quite work because clay was the wrong medium, she found better success working with steel, wood and Perspex, to create abstract sculptures. She also found and painted river Severn driftwood until, in 2011, she finally admitted to herself that her paintings should be, and would look much better on canvas.

Now painting is Sophia’s main occupation. Experiencing it as a continual exploration into the unknown she finds that each painting gains its own authority as she works on it. Her inner life (Subud) is probably as much an influence in her work as is the visual stimulus of the world around her and the work of other artists.

Sophia is also known as the artist who impaled herself on her own sculpture in 2010, about which she wrote as an article in the Guardian. The 7ft. repaired sculpture now stands proud in her garden.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/09/impaled-by-my-own-sculpture

Her ceramics, sculptures and paintings have been regularly exhibited in Gloucestershire, Bristol and Bath.