The Social Seen

Her human subjects are bird-like, out-of-shape, vain, pasty, camp, hairy, snobby, pretentious, over-confident, over-dressed, oblivious, bewildered and absurd.

Yet we feel a strange kinship with the creatures in Hatty Pedder’s paintings. They might be weird or even grotesque, but there is an underlying vulnerability and emptiness that we can all relate to.

Every character in Hatty’s work is infused with exaggerated life. Hatty’s pen is always searching, exploring every nook and cranny of her subject – inventing slow-burning subplots that make her paintings a never-ending discovery.

Although finished with daring flourishes of mixed-medium techniques Hatty’s work is essentially born from the drawn line – infinitely varied, with thicks and thins, delicate and abrasive, smooth lines and jagged – and it is this that gives each subject it’s satirical bite.