Mandy Payne

For Mandy Payne the important concerns within her paintings are materiality, surface textures and facture. She wants to work with materials that have a physical connection to the sites she depicts, namely concrete and spray paint (referencing the graffiti).

Her work suggests that ‘the built’ is in fact a form of nature. Mandy’s use of concrete, a material associated with the ‘made’, which main components actually derive from nature; sand and water, recognise the hidden roots that intertwine and connect us with the natural world. The natural environment where artist’s materials derive from, is in direct relation to the urbanisation of the natural environment. 

Payne is inspired by urban landscape, issues of gentrification, inequality, social housing and the flux of city environments. She is interested in Brutalist architecture, modernism, notions of utopia/dystopia and finding beauty in the ordinary/overlooked.

"I wanted to document the estate in transition and also for the work to speak of the loss and displacement of the existing communities. I am interested in issues of gentrification, social housing and the flux of the urban environment. I am inspired by the spaces people inhabit, the traces they leave and the capacity of places to absorb memories and experiences. I am particularly drawn to locations that are in a transitional state, that are overlooked or derided."

Between 2012 and 2017, and then again during lockdown 2020 - 2022, her  work focussed on Park Hill, the Grade II* listed Sheffield council estate and one of Britain’s largest examples of Brutalist architecture. The site is currently undergoing regeneration, with much of the estate converted into luxury flats, the remaining left boarded up and derelict. 

It was the un-refurbished parts of Park Hill that she found most inspiring, where the memories and layers of the past were almost tangible. Payne  wanted to document the estate in transition and also for the work to speak of the loss and displacement of the existing communities. Since 2017, as the regeneration of the estate has progressed, public access to Park Hill has become increasingly limited, thus she has been exploring similar locations undergoing gentrification in London, Manchester, Salford and Liverpool to inspire new work. In 2019, Mandy received an Arts Council Grant to investigate the North East of England to make new paintings and prints for a solo exhibition that she had at Huddersfield Art Gallery. However, during lockdown, in 2021, unable to travel far, Payne  returned to Park Hill, making new paintings, documenting both the new build and also referring back to old photographs taken several years ago before regeneration got seriously underway.

As part of the  process she casts concrete into small canvases to work on directly, employing spray paints and micro masking tapes to build up flat zones of colour and then oil painting for fine detail finishing. More recently working on large and lighter, custom made glass fibre reinforced panels to increase the scale of her work and also marble, referencing the perceived inequalities of rival building materials.

Mandy has widened her working practice and also investigated the same subject in print. In 2015 she was awarded a 2 year Fellowship to learn stone lithography at Leicester Print Workshop under the tutelage of expert lithographer Serena Smith.