Sally Swingewood is obsessive. If she cannot paint she will draw. If she cannot draw she will write, or construct - sculptures, boxes, book... whatever - using any materials at hand.
She is also endlessly fascinated by people and places, specifically London and those who call it home. The energy of the city, the grubby, changing beauty of it all, is at the heart of Swingewood's work. In her cityscapes she tries to capture the paradoxes:
the shifting, mesmeric, dynamism that twinkles, jewel-like, despite the litter, the grime, the crime, the pollution... In her portraits she examines the relationships the city dwellers have with each other and with the city itself. She understands the yearnings to run away, discover an Eden beyond the M25 and yet knows it is an illusion (having tried to find it herself); she wants to shout out for the city kids who have become demonised because of their fashion choices; she is intrigued and in awe of those who risk everything to leave their homeland and start afresh in the UK's capital. They all connect. They are all neighbours, potential friends and subjects of painterly examination.