Born 1965 - Birmingham, Alabama USA
Education - B.A., Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana USA

Residing in the British Virgin Islands since 1998

Stephanie Clayton has been the recipient of many awards and distinctions. Her work is part of several national and international collections, including Tallahassee Memorial Hospital in Florida, and has been the subject of numerous periodicals. She maintains two studios: One on the island of Tortola, and a secondary one in the Miami, Florida area.   

Artist's Statement

The primary intention of my work is to open avenues of emotion and thought through color, line and space. I paint intuitively, guided by dynamic interrelationships of visual elements, connecting them to experience, place and time.
The work is influenced by the natural world, particularly sea and sky, as well as by inherent properties of the medium. Using a reductive approach, I employ whichever materials are appropriate to conveying ideas in visual form- acrylic, oil, gouache, charcoal or pen. In painting, I apply many layers, repeating the process of adding and subtracting as the work progresses. During the creative process, a complex interplay occurs between material, visual recall, and contemplation.
I assign titles to elicit a guided response, inviting further contemplation about the work, thereby establishing connections between art and viewer.

The Paradise Project is a referential body of work I created from 2007 to 2009, alluding to escapism, perception and longing. The term was basically a wry comment on preconceived notions of ideals, and the disillusionment that follows if those perceptions fall short of reality. Vernacular color was used, particularly with The Shapes and The Block Paintings- hot, saturated Caribbean colors. In titling The Paradise Project paintings, I used surf lingo and tropical references as metaphors. I divided the work into three groups:

The Monochromes are made from multiple paint layers of a single hue, with subtle nuances- uneven ridges, shapes or patterns left during the application process, or in the medium as it dries; areas of thick and thin paint; and varying degrees of color saturation.

The Shapes are comprised of schematic color contrasts forming lines, blobs, squares and biomorphic shapes. The brushwork is informal, as evident in the uneven edges and drips. Positive and negative space, figure and ground, are equally resonant.

The Block Paintings are composed from small monochrome paintings attached to larger painted panels with cradled sides. As three-dimensional works, the Block Paintings are rather like sculptures- blocks of lush, vibrant hues.

In each of these groups, either the painting is an image (The Monochromes); it contains an image (The Shapes); or both (The Block Paintings).

I began the Fluidity and Cognitions series after completing The Paradise Project, in the summer of 2009.

The Fluidity gouache paintings are born from a desire to explore gray, as a need for transition from the vibrant hues of The Paradise Project; and as a continuation of monochromatic work. As always, I’m interested in the idea of control (application of gouache) with an element of chance (runs and channels formed during the drying process).

The Cognitions are a group of meditative line drawings, based loosely on stream-of-consciousness thinking, or doodling with a purpose. The Cognitions satisfy a desire to explore basic mark-making, with line being the most basic element of design.

Creative expression is the poetry of life- a record of one’s dedication, obsession, meditation and reason.

-Stephanie Clayton, 2008