Celia’s paintings are the result of a wider work, and in many ways are the by-product of a practice that is concerned with engaging with communities and groups of people. Celia’s goal is to work democratically with a group of people on a project. For Celia this project becomes a group effort and she is a co-creator. Together, Celia and this group of non-artists collaborators will attempt to learn or understand something about themselves or their environment which may have been just out of reach previously.
John Stokes, Art Manager, Rheged, Cumbria
"Dreaming of Home is the extraordinary possibility to see your imagination visualised by a painter. I had long been dreaming of a space, a space that I shall probably never be able to fully afford to create, except, with the help of Celia, I now have it. I can't think of many other opportunities where someone listens to you intently and then uses their skills to portray what they have heard. You get to see yourself through the eyes of another. It's a rare and wonderful thing."
Joshua Sofaer, artist.
"Celia Burbush is a painter based in Keswick. She paints from a makeshift studio in her basement, work that is thriving with emotion and autobiography. Both Celia and her work embrace the chaos of everyday life and the magic in the simple things. She is passionate about working in educational contexts with groups with learning disabilities and mental health issues, and using art in a transformative way."
ANDfestival, 2017
"Burbush's work offers a means of setting down a remembered or imagined home, marking out a participant's thinking and imagining a particular time and place. Seeing representations of imaged homes creates opportunities to chart transformations to our imagined home.To invite someone to creatively imagine a home is to allow for and attend to an individual's imaginative work."
Stuart Andrews, Lead Lecturer and Researcher, Brunel University
John Stokes, Art Manager, Rheged, Cumbria
"Dreaming of Home is the extraordinary possibility to see your imagination visualised by a painter. I had long been dreaming of a space, a space that I shall probably never be able to fully afford to create, except, with the help of Celia, I now have it. I can't think of many other opportunities where someone listens to you intently and then uses their skills to portray what they have heard. You get to see yourself through the eyes of another. It's a rare and wonderful thing."
Joshua Sofaer, artist.
"Celia Burbush is a painter based in Keswick. She paints from a makeshift studio in her basement, work that is thriving with emotion and autobiography. Both Celia and her work embrace the chaos of everyday life and the magic in the simple things. She is passionate about working in educational contexts with groups with learning disabilities and mental health issues, and using art in a transformative way."
ANDfestival, 2017
"Burbush's work offers a means of setting down a remembered or imagined home, marking out a participant's thinking and imagining a particular time and place. Seeing representations of imaged homes creates opportunities to chart transformations to our imagined home.To invite someone to creatively imagine a home is to allow for and attend to an individual's imaginative work."
Stuart Andrews, Lead Lecturer and Researcher, Brunel University