‘Roadside II’ Neolavender and black glass by Helen Slater Stokes
TREASURE NATURE 1st – 30th May
During recent weeks, many of us have found a moment to reconnect with nature on our daily walks. We have re-claimed the joy of seeing the sun colouring the landscape or spotting a squirrel in our garden or noticing birdsong for the first time in ages.
It is with this feeling in mind that we present our next exhibition, Treasure Nature. Appreciate the outside world and transport it back to your home with art that will encourage you to cherish and enjoy our environment forever.
We have brought together a selection of artists to inspire you, all working around the theme of the beautiful world around us:
Helen Slater Stokes’ artwork draws inspiration from the figurative and its perception within changing environments. Her work explores the creation of the 3D or spatial image, within glass, and the notion of glass as a facilitator, in working with and challenging our perception of space. Works address traditional artistic spatial illusionary methods, via drawing, such as perspective and tonality in order to create virtual landscapes that capture and preserve this space. Helen has recently embarked on a practice-based research PhD in glass, at The Royal College of Art.
Elfyn Lewis’ work is about paint and its use in trying to capture a moment or a glimpse of somewhere in the landscape. Originally from North Wales, Elfyn acknowledges that the place and the people have shaped him as a painter. He found growing up in Porthmadog in North Wales very idyllic as the landscape and the ever changing movements of light against the background of Snowdonia is breathtaking. He is proud to call it home and still today it transfixes him with its colours; expressing emotions in the work.
His practice is studio based, working on creating images that spark an interest, that engage and question, and ultimately push boundaries. Paintings can be accomplished in hours, days or even years as he battles to capture the emotion of the familiar landscape that reminds him of home. Titling the paintings comes at the end and can be about places, people, emotions, weather and landscape but will always be in Welsh.
Anne Wallace describes nature as being at the heart of her painting. The arrangement of colours within a painting can stir a memory or feeling, maybe of contemplation or unease, like gazing out to sea or painting a pale pink rose in dark green shade. These scenes are the beginnings, but the literal description may give way to colour and flow in order to be more truly expressive. She enjoys the physicality of the paint, the dynamic and beauty of one colour against another, or of brush or palette knife against the drawn line; the painting can seem almost lost and then the image unfolds into apparent harmony.
Ashar paints in oils on wooden panels creating moving abstract paintings capturing her responses to place rather than what she sees. She represents fleeting moments within layers of colours and marks, deliberately kept ambiguous to enable the observer to form their own interpretation of the piece.
Lynda Ruth Brown fulfils her reputation as a lyrical colourist. The latest paintings reference the ‘scapes’ of land, sea and weather without illustrative or narrative description but with an evocative subtlety that rewards close observation. She aims to suggest a history of experience through multi-layering of colour and texture – each veil of translucent colour revealing itself through the density of accumulation as well as the process of elimination.
Liza Mackintosh uses her practice as a visual diary for investigation into the natural landscape. She follows an undetermined path of exploration fuelled by her curiosity and continual observation of the organic world. New paintings for this show such as ‘Spring Heath’ study the complex networks in plant materials and how these echo the terrain of the landscape.
For further examples, details and prices of available work, please visit the BUY ART page or contact the gallery.
‘Ploughed Field’ by Helen Slater Stokes, Sepia-clear 12.5cm diameter x 3cm deep
‘Aran’ by Elfyn Lewis, 87cm x 87cm acrylic on mdf
‘Blue Vase’ by Anne Wallace, 60cm x 76cm Oil on canvas
‘Into the Silence’ by Ashar, 51cm x 51cm Oil on board
‘Fire Sky and Flaming Land’ by Lynda Ruth Brown 38cm x 38cm in a 53cm x 53cm frame
‘Evergreen Heath I’ by Liza Mackintosh, 46cm x 46cm Oil and acrylic on plywood
‘Gateway’ by Helen Slater Stokes, Bronze and Sepia 12.5cm diameter x 3cm deep
‘Tyner’ by Elfyn Lewis, 22cm x 22xm acrylic on mdf
‘Bramble’ by Anne Wallace, 61cm x 76cm Oil on canvas
‘Through the Mists of Time’ by Ashar, 76cm x 76cm Oil on board
‘Sea Horizon’ by Lynda Ruth Brown 38cm x 38cm in a 53cm x 53cm frame
‘Spring Heath II’ by Liza Mackintosh, 75cm x 75cm Oil and acrylic on plywood