Deborah Azzopardi
About the artist
The London based artist Deborah Azzopardi emerged from a background in commercial art, where her clients included household names such as Bovril, Bisto and Disney. It was enjoyable but demanding work, and after a serious illness some years ago she decided to concentrate on painting subjects that really meant something to her, reasoning that ‘Life’s short, and if you do what you love then everything else will eventually fall into place’. Her mother was a fashion designer at Jaeger and Deborah believes that this is where much of her creativity derives from.
Deborah works in acrylic, usually on board or canvas, and claims that her sense of mischief and black humour inspires much of her subject matter. She has reached worldwide recognition over the last few years with her iconic ‘Sshh’, which recently went on sale for £350,000 as part of her 35th anniversary retrospective exhibition.
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My curation
I have admired Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley and Toulouse Lautrec since childhood. Their work was a perfect composition of natural illustrations and graphic art. Decorative, delicate, and inspiring.
These artists exhibit graceful movement in their work, flowing lines with some captured by the flat use of colour. I enjoy the impact of Lautrec’s silhouettes in his art, mixed with his own unique talent of illustration and caricature. A master.
The photography shows moments of our natural world captured. Roseveare’s stunning dreamlike landscapes that I’d like to witness daily, show the excitement and intensity of nature. Joe Cornish has created memorable sights. Relax and breathe, to take in all that David Keochkerian shows us. The monochrome photos of Andrew Geiger show strong compositions that are attractive images to live with.
I am fond of images that make their own statements. Ohara Koson’s image has elegance and presence. Matisse shows his artistic expression in the arrangement of Blue Nude, with a conscious use of imagination. The image is expressive and powerful. As is Michelangelo, the greatest figure of the High Renaissance.
Humour and colour is always appealing to me. Modern day surrealism makes Cristina Schek’s images believable. I particularly like ‘App-Normal Telecommunications’. It reminds me of when my computer asks me if I am the robot.
You can sense the atmosphere in the work of Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’. This is a wonderful image for any interior. Cezanne paints the beauty in the everyday, the images need to be seen closely to be appreciated.