Women and the Land

About

Women and the land is the latest exhibition at Murmurations gallery that brings together the work of three local artists exploring their inherent relationship with the landscape. This exhibition highlights not only the different perspectives these women have on the landscape but also the different styles in which they explore their creativity. The exhibition explores the natural association that women have with the land in terms of their shared fertility, their passage within the seasons, and/or the common bond of stewardship inherent in their beings. The land, with its varied geophysical landforms as well as living and non-living elements such as trees or buildings, has always created a powerful and emotional link with people. For generations, it has inspired countless artists to explore their creativity and try to capture the essence of its origins. This exhibition briefly tries to highlight how 3 women have attempted to paint/capture the landscape that inspires them. Each with a different perspective, each using a different medium, each creating a different output, but ultimately, all sharing the common love for the land.

Ruth Cowell, a specialist figurative oil painter, paints with vibrant bold colours mainly in acrylic and oils. Her painting subtly reinterprets the land, and colours are reimagined to create atmospheric and emotive memories of far-away places. Whereas Margaret Turton uses the medium of watercolours to reflect the natural hues and reality of our English landscape. Her iconic paintings of beauty spots all over Sussex capture the many bucolic images of rural England, nestled between land, sea and sky. Lastly Geraldine Franklin, working mainly with screenprint on silk and paper, takes a more abstract line by reimaging the land completely to create fluid feminine forms that exist inherent both in women and the land.