New Artist Network Members - 2021
We are delighted to welcome five new Artist Network members for 2021.
They are:
'I paint, draw, take photographs and write about art. I bring the outside world into my work and spend a lot of time in the landscape, which is a great leveller. It is here where I begin to form ideas that I work out in the studio. My subject matter is nature, whether it is the landscape, figure, plant or a bird. I work in paint for its versatility, delicacy and strength. Paint is wonderful and can be transformed into a story on paper, panel or canvas. The best compliment I have had about my work was from someone who had bought a painting, "Every time I look at it, I see something else".'
'When something exterior and visual becomes something internal and spiritual.
It is hard to hold on to the sensation of those moments when I am moved by a connection that is pure joy: which enters through my sense and impacts my inner being viscerally.
My paintings breathe life back into those moments and 'bottle' them.'
'It is my experience of the land and sea which has always provided the impetus for my work. I gain my initial response to the landscape from walking. ...The dominance of the land and sea as the impetus for my work also creates a number of interesting questions which I need to resolve again and again. Firstly there is the tension between figuration and abstraction with which my work is concerned: the presence of a horizon line or its absence. Then there is the contrast between the experience of the peace and stillness of the vast empty spaces, or the importance of the small and closely observed image seen from the corner of the eye but which stays embedded in the memory of a place. By allowing my work to move between these and other memories I try to develop a fluidity and freshness of approach to the landscape.'
'Despite sculptural training, my practice is not material-led, in fact ideologically it questions materiality in overconsumption, anti-consumerism & ecocide. Yet, when appropriate, I use materials to embody labour and convey meaning through contextual association. Investment in process, develops dialogue, shaping outcomes in a respectful dance between material & maker.'
'Intensely coloured expressionist abstraction is my response to the strange new post-truth, pandemic-stricken world we now live in. Making these paintings and drawings, represents a kind of conceptual freedom for me; free from figuration, narrative or fixed meanings. ... I find that the marks often appear to suggest movement in three-dimensional space. My recent experiments with non-conventional tools has added to my vocabulary of techniques, producing a broader range of contrasting textures from scumbled or scratched surfaces, or translucent glazes, to thickly rendered impasto.'