Felicity Cormack: Three French Hens

About the artist

Felicity Cormack is a Faringdon-based artist whose work is defined by an interest in capturing movement and the specific, fleeting rhythms of living subjects. With a background that includes an M.A. in Drawing for Fine Art Practice from Oxford Brookes University and a B.A. in Fine Art Painting from Cheltenham College of Art, Cormack has spent much of her career documenting the energy of dancers and musicians. Her experience includes working with the Luke Brown Dance Company and participating in the Playground at Ballet Rambert, as well as acting as an artist during London Fashion Week.

Her woodcut Three French Hens, shortlisted for the Fen Ditton Gallery Contemporary Printmaking Prize 2026, represents a shift in subject but a continuation of her focus on action. Drawn in August 2025 at her sister’s house in France, the piece captures a group of hens wandering through a garden. Cormack was specifically interested in the observational pause—the tension in the moment a hen studies the ground before deciding to peck. While her usual subjects are human performers, these chickens offered a different kind of pose: one that is active, yet through the medium of the woodcut, becomes permanently suspended.

Cormack has been a member of the Oxford Printmakers Co-operative since 1997 and studied wood engraving with Sarah Van Niekirk at West Dean College. Her practice often bridges her previous life as a violin teacher with her visual art, using a disciplined approach to line and form to find the "titbits" of movement in the everyday. She has exhibited widely across Oxfordshire, including group shows at the North Wall Gallery and individual shows for Oxford Artweeks. In April 2026, she was named a runner-up in the Swire Ridgeway competition.