​​​​​​​"Evoking opulence and decadence, British born artist Gayle Storey’s paintings, emulate the parallels between the morphic resonance of a bird and the fragility of life." 

​Gayle Storey’s current work is founded on biologist Ernst Haeckel, with the permission and collaboration MBLWHOI Library in Massachusetts USA.  The work creates a parallel between the morphic resonance of a bird’s spirit and the fragility of life. Ornate embellishments are carefully placed upon the canvas, gilding her work to a level of richness.

Studying at UCA, MA in Fine Art, receiving Distinction. She is currently an Artist in Residence on the TestBeds program at the University of Bedfordshire, sponsored by the National Lottery and Arts Council England. Her practice is adaptable to various art forms such as painting, printmaking, sculpture and art installations, and her work is moulded around her imagination, sharing this experience with her audience, by guiding them into new territories of art appreciation.  

​Gayle Storey is a Fine Artist and her Studio is within the Chilterns. Her paintings and prints evoke a sense of beauty. She attended the University for the Creative Arts at Canterbury and received a Distinction for MA in Fine Art and her work has been featured in international publications and media. Gayle also lectures alongside a talented team of specialist tutors.

Working with interdisciplinary practices: sculpture, printmaking and painting, Gayle's current paintings emit a dialogue between lapsed historical work and her own contemporary genre. Expression and simulation resonate within her work, to create powerful, decadent and stunning images, extending the perimeters of contemporary and historical Fine Art. Gayle’s work is a paradox between the past and present.

The use of fragile broken marks upon the surface of her pieces creates a parallel between the morphic resonance of a bird’s spirit and the fragility of life.

Duplicate images are embedded and encased with opulent oil paints. The fluidity of line and her gestural marks are captured onto the surfaces of the canvas. Ornate beaded embellishments are carefully placed upon the canvas, gilding  her work to a level of richness.

"My current work is founded on the works of Ernst Haeckel, via the permission and collaboration with Diane M. Rielinger Co-Director MBLWHOI Library, MA USA. I have been able to emit a dialogue between the lapsed historical work of Haeckel and my own contemporary genre. Expression and simulation resonate within my work, to create powerful collaborations, decadent and stunning images, extending the perimeters of Fine Art.  It is a paradox between the past and present. The use of fragile broken marks upon the surface creates a parallel between the morphic resonance of a bird’s spirit and the fragility of life. Cloned images of Ernst’s works are embedded and encased with opulent oil paints. The fluidity of line and gestural marks are captured onto the surfaces of the canvas. Ornate beaded embellishments are carefully placed upon the canvas, gilding the work to a level of richness.​

On initial review of “Caged Humming Birds, After Ernst Haeckel” the image depicts a utopia of beauty, but on greater reflection the corresponding signifiers are intricacies of social structures, functioning and boundaries. My images of the birds are cloned and yet still create differences.  Placed within alternative settings, the birds evoke emotive dialogues, which denote scenes of life and the passing of time. The vibrant colours represent a link to the past opulence and deity. The beaded roses over the canvas are used to represent the sovereignty of English heritage and a rhetorical ambiguous imperialism salute to historical barbarism, that British heritage is founded upon. This ornate line of opulence represents humanities spirit of reality, keeping the viewer very much in the realm of the observer and detached from entering into the central void of blue and the boundary between the present and the future, in parallel with my own beliefs, and spiritual connection to the now and future promise of a heaven. The beading acts as a visual cage or net around the canvas, trapping in the birds and ultimately the viewer from the ascension into heaven or utopia.  

My work has progressed naturally into the use of screen-printing here at the University of Bedfordshire, with a series of prints using the plant structures taken from my garden. This is a paradox of my own mortality and desire to reproduce a lasting legacy, emulated through the visual use of organic structures. I have captured this through the process of screen-printing, using flowers directly onto the surface of the exposure unit. The flowers have been captured as they are regenerating through the reproduction of seed, capturing the image in its integrity and preserving the image of rebirth and regeneration.