Hope Atherton

Hope Atherton’s paintings are rooted in narrative, mysticism, and the otherworldly, hovering between the psychological and the surreal. Her work explores how memory, light and abstraction can evoke a dream state through images that feel half-remembered, suspended between presence and disappearance.

In her paintings, light and perspective become central subjects. Works such as Doll Hospital present demure figures caught between radiance and obscurity—a woman poised in brightness, her indistinct face lending an eerie tension to the scene. Other works, like Oracle and The Choir, move toward abstraction, evoking spirituality and otherworldly presence without direct religious imagery.

Through subtle shifts in tone and form, Atherton transforms found or remembered images into surreal, dreamlike moments. As the artist notes, “the mood that is evoked transcends its original.” Her compositions hovering between figuration and abstraction, becoming fragments of experience, flickering on the edge of consciousness.