Chantal Joffe

Chantal Joffe's work tends to focus on the exploration of the self, as well as exploring themes of friendship and the relationship that she has with fellow artist Ishbel Myerscough. The themes of her work always tend to come back to her self portraits, portraits of Ishbel and of each others children. Joffe's work is informed by multiple different artists, she tries to inhabit the mind of the artists that she looks at, borrowing the way in which they worked, challenging herself to constantly change the way in which she paints, from Alberto Giacometti to Jackson Pollock and Lucian Freud.

The way in which she paints leaves each painting with a sense of energy and passion within it. Joffe describes the act of her painting as reaching a physical state, where she doesn't need to think about mixing colours, it's like all the connections coming together within her painting. The work usually tends to be made with oil paint on canvas or wooden board.

Source: 'Friendship Portraits: Chantal Joffe and Ishbel Myerscough' 700/FRI (CAT)