Lucy Threlfall

Lucy’s paintings for Inner Visions were inspired by frequent visits to Jubilee Woods in Hertfordshire. Her fascination with expressive tree forms which speak of hope, fear, tenderness and aggression fuse with an interest in classical mythology. The compelling stories of gods and humans in extreme, tragic, surreal, often comic situations have shaped our understanding of who and what we are helping us make sense of the human condition and Lucy’s work contributes to this centuries old conversation. Often Lucy’s figures appear complete with their story, but occasionally she borrows a pose from renaissance interpretations of classical mythology. Letting ideas form through various iterations of an image and allowing at each stage the accidents to trigger a new direction.

The influence from Old Master paintings ripples through her work. ‘Thin Place’ adapts the renaissance artist’s mathematical study of space to explore the elasticity of time in human perception. It is somewhere in nature where space and time seem to collapse and the curtain between this world and the next is momentarily parted. In Lucy’s ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ the figures appear in the charged light that shines through the trees. The male figure echoes that of Titian’s famous painting. Ariadne takes flight, her being vanishes in equal measure to the god’s desire.  Ambiguity is an essential part of Lucy’s work – these paintings are neither fully embodied figures nor faithful studies of nature, but something in between, where interesting and unexpected things occur. This is a vision of humanity not separate from but very much a part of nature.

Lucy Threlfall is a painter and printmaker based in North Hertfordshire. Her practice encompasses both commissioned portraits and large gestural oil paintings that fuse observations of nature with imagination and memory. Lusy has a degree in Art History and an MA in printmaking. Lucy is interested in exploring the tension between male and female. 

Lucy has recently exhibited with Moorwood Fine Art, AKA Fine Art and Linden Hall Studios. Past exhibitions include the Royal Society of Portraits Painters in 2003, Christie’s in 2005 with the Garrick Milne prize and Wells Art Contemporary in 2019. In 2021 she was long listed for the Jackson’s Art Prize and became a semi-finalist in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, painting the singer Celeste.