The Floating Dancers in Blues

Nancy Clayton

pastel on paper

2021
  • About the work
    Nancy Clayton is a visual artist and dancer, whose practice is informed by music. She works with pastel and, in many cases, with charcoal on paper. This is one of two large-scale drawings of dancers, informed by her observation of the body in motion and her experience of how music is felt in the body. The complex figurative compositions in the works balance the weight and momentary flight of the body while capturing the emotional intensity shared through performance. Clayton, speaking about these particular works, has described how she ‘put figures together, as a theme, a collection of people and colours...I look at how [the dancer] floats and how they stand out, and at how the anxiety is moving out of them. Sometimes my drawings are like dreams, sometimes ghost-like: the eyes are coming towards you, the colours are melting away.
  • About the artist
    Nancy Clayton was born in London, where she currently lives. She has been a member of the Intoart Collective since 2019, which defines itself as an alternative art school enabling those with learning disabilities to develop a long term creative practice.
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  • Details
    Title
    The Floating Dancers in Blues
    Date
    2021
    Medium
    pastel on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 114 cm; width: 165.5 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Intoart, September 2022
    Provenance
    Intoart, London UK; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 22 September 2022
    GAC number
    19113