Oxfordshire Artweeks Group Open Exhibition 2016

About

Joe is an artist and illustrator who grew up in Oxford. He graduated with a degree in Fine Art from The University of Westminster in 2012 and has exhibited in other cities such as London, Edinburgh and Berlin. He is fascinated by people and places, paying particular attention to the lesser known haunts and landmarks of a city, drawing pubs, venues and other local locations that he frequents. You can find other examples of his work on the walls of many of the places he has drawn to date

Jan Ritchie

Having studied textile design at Derby College of Art, Jan worked for many years as a fabric and wallpaper designer producing designs for both the fashion and furnishing markets. She worked for companies including Rose & Hubble,Warner Fabrics, Sanderson's, Laura Ashley and M&S. Her designs have been used in many places ranging from Buckingham Palace to Hollywood blockbusters! She has sold many prints and drawings, some under her maiden name Jan Collins; one of her latest commissions was the artwork and design for the Classic Ghost Stories CD by Bill Spectre

Small & Large Gallery & Boiler Room
Exhibition runs: 7th – 30th May 2016

Gareth Lloyd - A former soldier who discovered his artistic talent on tour in Iraq, Gareth is an Oxford based Artist creating endearing wildlife pieces in pencil, paint and charcoal. Over the years, Gareth has worked with organisations such as the Born Free foundation and Lion Aid. His soulful pieces have captured the heart of art collectors and animal lovers worldwide, and many are now housed in prestigious international collections.

Elaine Allender - An Oxford-based artist who is inspired by the colours and textures of the natural world. Self-taught, Elaine is interested in the use of colour and texture, building up her paintings in many layers. Inspired by both the Scottish Colourists and the Impressionists, she strives to capture the essence of her flowers and rural scenes with mark making in a non-representational style.

Alexandra Buckle - Oxfordshire based Artist who is inspired by countryside walks and excited by light, shadow and colour. Alexandra enjoys capturing her favourite scenery as hand printed ‘reduction’ linocuts.

Celestine Kim – An abstract painter and installation artist. In recent years, she has explored the relationship and interaction between abstract artworks and space. She believes that if paintings or art objects are effectively considered in conjunction with space, there is a synergistic effect and the effect leads to different visual dialogues between art objects and space.

Claire Forsythe – Claire works within the figurative tradition to produce drawings and paintings based on observation. She explores the tension that arises as she depicts form whilst also allowing abstract qualities to develop. It is an investigative process in which form is continually lost and recovered in an attempt to capture something profound in the subject. Claire works primarily with drawing materials and oil paint.
Deborah Williams – An Oxford artist who went to school and university in Oxford and has lived in West Oxford for the last 18 years. As an artist, Deborah’s preoccupations are movement and light. She has always been interested in form and for many years worked primarily in black and white, concentrating on life drawing and still life and how to use tone to show form in a simplified way.

Maureen Gillespie – An Artist who has always been passionate about art; with a successful career behind her, and her family all grown up, Maureen has been fortunate to return to her passion. Life took on a whole new challenge; Maureen attended a refresher course to brush up on her skills, rented a small studio locally and discovered an array of different techniques. Graduating from charcoal and pastel sketches to acrylic paints, like most artists setting out, Maureen was trying to find and create her style.

Jim Robinson – A self taught artist who has been painting and drawing from an early age. Jim works in a studio at home and prefers to create small to medium sized works, most recently using coloured pencil, coloured inks, graphite and charcoal or chalk as well as gouache on thick paper. He also works in acrylics and oils on canvas. Although he is not a traditional water-colourist, he enjoys working with ink, pencil and wash. In the same way he finds drawing with ink pen comes more naturally than working with graphite.

Ella Hendy - Oil paints have long been Ella’s preferred medium but she has increasingly enjoyed using acrylics, particularly mixed with textured wallpaper samples on canvas. Her use of colour varies according to the mood of the piece but, even when using vibrant colours, often work with a limited colour palette.

Eleanor Bruce- An Artist who reworks layers of colour and shape, creating conflicting structures of organic and geometric marks, resembling explosions and chaos.

Louise Gordan - She loves to draw buildings as she feels it makes her notice and appreciate the architecture around her, and she hopes that her drawings will encourage people to look at the buildings they pass everyday in more detail.
Beatrice Hoffman - Grew up in Germany and studied sculpture at the Norwich School of Art from 1986-9. She is based near Oxford and is working mostly in solid and coiled clay, creating sculptures both figurative and abstract to be cast in bronze (resin).

Rona – Uses a mostly monochromatic palate of oil on canvas to paint images of people. She is interested in the inner psyche and in capturing a particular mood. Her subject matter is usually what is close to her and she hopes to gain a greater understanding through this exploration. Her themes focus primarily on relationships and past works have included the role of women in Japanese society, the family, pregnancy, motherhood, ageing and teenage girls.

Chu-Ern - Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1972 and has worked and lived in many places since then. She has always seen the world differently, particularly in terms of colour. She is colour blind and her work reflects her world of light and shadow. Her current artwork involves the effect of emotion on the human body and her own thoughts in reference to the subject. She experiments with pigments, some bought and some made from the things she collects during her long walks.

Gena Johns - Oxfordshire based Fine Artist, born in Osaka, Japan. Fine Art Graduate of the University of Southampton, Winchester School of Art. Once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. He said, "Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don't, but you listen to them anyway". So, sometimes with art, it is important just to look.

Siobhan Cooney – An Artist who graduated in 2003 with a degree in product design, and since then she has worked as a prototype designer, an interior designer and an art and graphics teacher. Four years ago she decided to focus solely on her art career, and she works from her studio in Oxfordshire. As an artist she works across numerous disciplines and media, and she likes to vary her work to both challenge and refresh herself. At present Siobhan is screen printing, spray painting, and adding depth through resin coating.

Robert W Strange - Life is put in boxes. He collects colourful, everyday objects that are discarded, unwanted and/or past their usefulness. These are then placed in a box where he rejuvenates them and makes them special. As in a museum, if something is encased in glass it must have worth, and so it is with ordinary objects such as old ties, sweet wrappers, golf tees etc. Their beauty lies in back-story, what they once represented and what they accomplished. Like humans they have a purpose even though they are old and weathered.

Joanne Lillywhite - An artist living in South Oxfordshire, UK. She specialises in pastel paintings and drawing in pencil and charcoal. Joanne has loved drawing since she was a child. She could often be seen copying pictures from books or making portraits of her family members. Joanne is self-taught but regularly attends courses to further her knowledge. She believes that as an artist, or in any profession, you should never stop learning and it’s important to try new techniques and styles in order to make art, which is interesting and evokes a response in the viewer.

John Blandy - Recent work is painted on site, with an emphasis on the immediate quality of mark that relates directly to the visual source. Blandy works with the idea of a moment in time, making extended series following particular places over long periods. Two projects that are current follow a lime tree in Queens Park and a stream near Oxford.

Philly Rutt- A London based Artist from Oxford whose colourful work is eclectic, demonstrating a range of disciplines and mediums. Inspired by the landscapes around her, Phillipa works with acrylic paint, pen and ink and uses a variety of techniques to create texture and depth to her work.

Paul Minter – An Artist inspired by the local landscape and he tries to capture the changing moods of the weather. Minter is always disappointed by photographs, which rarely do justice to the magnificent sunrises and sunsets over the Ridgeway. ‘So I try to remember the colours and to capture them in paintings that have become increasingly abstracted. I try to make exciting paintings that create a powerful impression across a room, but that also reward close scrutiny’.

Moon Lee - Moon’s work is invested in making an image, which is mixing oriental figurative paintings, and contemporary visual productions, which are from various mass media, publications and cultures. He often discovers new ideas and concepts through the interaction between the human body and matter of the world, or subjectivity and desire.
Merlin Porter- A vibrant and soulful Oxford-based visual artist working primarily in watercolour, ink, pencil and oil pastel. Merlin focuses on creating pieces live on location in social, performance or street settings, as well as illustration and figurative work.

Julie Wigg - Julie’s paintings embrace the outdoors. They reflect the real and imagined, the ideal, experience and memory of being in an ever changing landscape, tempered by constantly shifting dramas of light, movement and weather, that emulate the delicate fabric of the natural world. Influenced by mid 19th century painters and process driven, the overlapping woven surface layers build with the application of paint, often fast yet deliberate.