abigail burton
Website: abigailburtonart.com/
Instagram: abigail_burton_art/
Statement
I am a classically trained artist with a background in mathematics, working in oil paint and graphite. My interest in representational art arises both as a means of self expression and from a desire to understand visual phenomena and my responses to them, as well as how responses vary between people. I use traditional methods and work from life whenever possible.
For me, maths and art are not dissimilar in motivation or even in approach. They are both intensely creative pursuits which involve breaking down reality or the human experience through abstraction and simplification to find some fundamental truth. I also believe that in both, the most beautiful results are derived from reality.
My mathematical background gives me a high regard for technical skill and I try to approach any problem in art with the same combination of intuition, analysis and perseverance that I would approach a mathematical problem.
Biography
Born in 1997 in London, I grew up surrounded by my grandmother’s artwork and drew obsessively throughout my childhood and adolescence. I spent much of my childhood living in a houseboat on the Thames, before moving to East Sussex, where I was raised by my sister. Long coastal walks and time spent on the river gave me a strong appreciation of natural beauty.
I studied mathematics at The University of Oxford and completed a master’s degree there in 2019, before beginning a PhD at Imperial College London. However, over time my love of art overcame my love of maths, and I left maths in 2021 to pursue an art career.
I am now studying classical realist art full time at the Barnes Atelier and I work on looser plein air paintings outside of my studies, including as a Hudson River Fellow in 2024.
As of 2023, my work has been selected to exhibit with The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Discerning Eye, and The Society of Women Artists exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, and several times with The Chelsea Art Society, The Society of Scottish Artists, The Bath Society of Artists, The Gallery at Green and Stone, and in the Salmagundi Club in New York.