Group Show with Chipping Norton Arts

About

In these very uncertain times, the art sector especially has found itself in an environment where people have been removed from their usual networks and even possibly their studios and equipment, galleries closed, exhibitions postponed or cancelled, creatives have had to dig deep within themselves. We feel now is the time to support those around us and we wanted to put on several exhibitons up to Christmas to showcase local artists. We are delighted to be working with Chipping Norton Arts and its network of creatives and are looking forward to curating the wonderful range of works produced by the wide variety a collective such as CNArts provides. contributing artists are:

Jane Abbott works in watercolours, textiles and ornamental calligraphy. Nature offers inspiration for finely detailed watercolours of wildlife and landscapes including some of the most beautiful ancient trees from old Oxfordshire woodlands and further afield.

Crabby Taylor’s beautiful hand built ceramics are either Raku, Saggar or Smoke fired, occasionally all of these processes, conjuring a beautiful combination of chaos and control. She creates her artrworks out in the open air, working with all the variences that the fine English weather can muster.

Kerry Forkner is a textile artist interested in using stats to explore and interpret different surfaces, especially from organic, natural and historical sources. In recording textures, mapping memories of travel routes using fabric and stitch, she aims to interpret an atmosphere of place.

Ruth Shaw Williams is an artist working in mixed-media installation, placing particular emphasis on Printmaking and Artists’ Books. Ruth creates handmade books and book art in her studio, which are exhibited both nationally and internationally.

For Martin Sanders the creative pleasure is seeing a piece evolve. It starts with a design in his mind but very often the wood he is working with has ideas of its own. The end product may be quite different from his original plan and he is happy for both the wood and initial design to come together in the final piece.

Dressmaker, textile and mixed media artist Lisa Hughes works largely with antique, vintage and or reclaimed fabrics. With her mixed media creations, she tends to work with her 9 year old son using found objects and his world of imagination.

Andrew Wildman is best known for his work as a comic book artists for Marvel back in the 90’s on such books as Spider-Man, X-Men, Venom and Transformers. He now works as an Art Director and Storyboard Artist for TV on children’s animation.

Rosemary Atkins uses the process of lino-cutting to create her pieces. It starts with the recognition of an image that inspires and suggests how she might approach it, simplifying it down to areas of tone and texture. Then the quite arduous work that goes into each stage, always holding out the promise of the moment of revelation, is worthwhile, fuelled by an underlying excitement along the way.

Photographer Andrew Ogilvy is a versatile and intuitive creative. He has a broad range of camera experience including portraiture, events, corporate headshots, product photography and feature film work. Andrew is known for his engaging, minimal portraits that capture the depth of an individual’s character. His quick speed of work is fuss free, frequently shooting in limited time frames that makes for an ideal combination for work off site.

Resonating with historical references and details Pam Franklin’s paintings use tiny fragments blown up large, which can seem abstract but the language is also literal. Fragments of wall paper are embedded into the gessoed surface which are revealed when sanded back, as if emerging from the surface memory.

Myrica Jones has worked as a decorative artist with a background in gilding, special paint effects and mural work, for more than 30 years. Myrica has recently returned to her original passion of fine art. She is currently enjoying large-scale figurative artwork produced with ink. These pieces take the form of large-scale line drawings, taking inspiration from something she sees in nature, a texture, a fabric, words or a post on social media.

Caroline Chappell creates paintings which express sensations, memories and responses to the world around me. She makes drawings and notes in the landscape then develop them into paintings in the studio. She uses a mixed-media multi-layered approach creatively exploring the process of applying colour to a surface.

Spending most of her professional, creative working life living in New Zealand, Nicola Durrant now takes inspiration for her current work from the rolling hills surrounding her home locally. Nicola also acknowledges that due to her textile background, she is also attracted to patterns seen within the landscape.

Caroline Nixon is a textile artist, using leaves and natural dyes to print cloth and paper – a contemporary adaptation of the ancient art of dyeing with plant based pigments. Her work evolves with the seasons, as the natural printing properties of the leaves respond to climatic changes. The antithesis of today’s ‘throwaway’ society.

Semi-abstract acrylic paintings that embrace vibrant colour combinations, exploration and fantasy, are how Pauline Nolan approaches each piece. Open mind, mainly working with acrylic inks to produce random backgrounds and then looking for images hidden within, these are subsequently enhanced by the use of negative space and added textural finishes, including acrylic paint, collage or calligraphy.

For Bobbie Seagroatt painting, drawing, illustration and design have been a constant thread throughout her life. Materiality in its elemental form is central to her thread, hence a lot of her paintings are not on stretchers, so that the edges, underneaths and surface textures of the canvases are on full display.

Jacky Radbone paints almost entirely in oils, painting as much as possible on location locally, or on the Welsh or Devon coast, trying to capture the light and mood of the scene before her.

Visual artist Maureen Gillespie is driven to paint things that capture her eye; in most cases the inspiration comes from Sea and Landscapes. Capturing ideas and images en plein air with sketches and photos is all part of her desire to execute a well planned painting as is the exciting process of producing the end result.

Nic Vickery’s life has revolved around animals, at home and at work, gaining a real insight into all creatures great and small. This has helped to inform each piece when it comes to producing a piece of animal artwork She works mainly in pastel on board, bringing all their characters to life.

Cathryn Jeff - Cathryn Jeff creates paintings inspired by the stunning local countryside and seascapes from her travels. The application of the medium is an exciting experience for her, creating interesting marks such as splashes, dripping, masking, dry brushing, palette knife and fluid paint effects.

Drawing gesturally Jill Colchester is interested in movement and the figure, creating minimal, dynamic drawings, that allows the viewer to see the movement continued in the optical-illusion created by the overlaid poses, that are held briefly by the model.

Susannah King’s approach to painting is intuitive in regards to colour and texture, a considered process of building multiple layers of acrylic. Her intention is for her work to act as an interface between what is seen and what is felt. She sees her paintings existing like a piece of music.

Mixed media artist Rachel Cronin creates abstract landscapes working in response to the seasons. Her work takes in impressions and memories as much as it does sketches and scribbled records. Contrasts of texture, tone, shape, and line interrupt the conversation between mark making and white space. There is a dance between application and reduction until a destination is arrived at, allowing historical layers of paint to peak out from beneath the surface.

Working locally, Ella Clocksin translates what she sees / hears in ancient woodland ecologies into abstract paintings which speak of a core texture of experience best termed poetry/poetics. Ella’s notations are of momentary sensory cues, coming into being at the borders of bodily perception and language, and at the intersection of external and inner landscapes.

Artist Lesley Wildman creates textile landscapes that teeter on the abstract by stretching yarn straight over canvas. Together the lines create extraordinary seascapes and evocative countryside, both gentle and stark, through the seasons. Some show striking dark forests and reflections of awe-inspiring sunsets in icy lakes as long shadows stretch into darkness; others celebrate the softer beauty of lavender field and fresh green grass or sculpt the occasional mist settled in the curves the Cotswolds.

Janet Bird was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by dogs, cats, horses and other animals, in Ireland. It is no surprise she chose to become a wildlife and pet artist, capturing the movement, character and complexities of nature. Janet also captures the occasional beautiful landscape too!

Throughout her career, Anna Bush has maintained her practice working in a range of different mediums including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and digital media. Her work is all about experimenting with materials, not over thinking it, just recording her little existence in the world and most of all having fun. ‘When you play and take risks with materials, interesting things can happen, and this fuels the desire to keep on creating.’

Each item created by Laura Murphy, from the initial inspiration, through the design, making and finishing. She uses a combination of slip-casting and slip-forming to create a distinct effect. The subtle variations in each item are introduced as part of the making process, ensuring the finished piece is unique, even if each starts from the same pattern or decoration technique. The quality of the light that comes through the clay is reminiscent of daylight on a spring morning and speaks of new beginnings. 

We look forward to welcoming you all!