Monique Fischer Birley

Finalist Surrey Artist of the year 2021 ~ exhibited New Ashgate Gallery. As an introverted child Monique was always tucked away drawing. Her grandfather, well known South African artist Otto Klar saw potential in the big bold drawings coming from this tiny, shy girl and encouraged her to keep drawing, every single day. She studied fine art at the Technicon Pretoria- specialising in silk screening, etching, life drawing, jewellery and ceramics. Monique went on to pursue a career as a goldsmith, completing an apprenticeship at Vienna Jewellers. She has been self employed since- taking a break to raise kids, who are all artistic in their own rights. She started painting after moving to England, inspired by the winter light, and how to capture it in paint. First watercolour, then acrylics. It began as a love for the countryside, big sky's, colour, urban and rural shapes, intrigued by nature and confused by people... After the fine controlled detailed work as a goldsmith, she relished in the loose freedom of expression with paint. " I try to capture a moment, or a feeling, rather than an identical likeness. The more I paint, the more I want to paint."