Fred Sorrell
Mountain Path, 2026
Acrylic paint on canvas and wood panels
X-Ray corridor, Emergency Department, Royal London Hospital
For his commission at the Royal London Hospital—Fred Sorrell’s first project for healthcare—the artist developed a series of paintings that form an installation entitled Mountain Path.
The artist conceived of the work while spending time in the Canadian wilderness. Although the paintings appear abstract, they make subtle reference to nature, especially to mountain trails and paths. As Sorrell says, the imagery can be seen as the "space we hold for ourselves as we place one foot in front of the other” while walking in the mountains. They evoke the journey — time, light, feeling, transience.
Sorrell’s paintings are rooted in the experience of wilderness. They are not imitating nature, he says, but rather “the colours and forms are a response to it – trying to build a sense of the connectedness of space through light".
In many ways, they are also about looking and seeing; they are about our perception of nature. The artist begins all his work with an in-depth study of the light, colour, space and shapes found in the landscape. The paintings require extending viewing; they take time to unfold and to reveal a quiet interplay of hue and form, background and foreground.
About the artist
Fred Sorrell (born 1984, London) studied at Falmouth College University. Recent solo exhibitions of his work were held at Parafin London (2022 and 2020) and ‘Between Sea and Sky’, Saturation Point, London (2019). He has participated in several group exhibitions, including at Close, Somerset, Fred Levine, Bruton; Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; Hestercombe House & Gallery; Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London; Royal Standard, Liverpool. He has undertaken residencies at The Banff Centre, Canada, The Florence Trust, London, Takt, Berlin and Kerel de Grote Hogeschool, Antwerp.
