Blue 22 Volume 1

The past year has provided an unusual period of isolation, introspection and reflection, and the chosen spaces within which these processes occur, can have an altered and potentially very positive effect on the outcome of creative activity. This exhibition represents 14 very personal responses to these extraordinary events.

“The studio has become the crucible in which human genius, at the peak of its development, brings back into question everything that exists.”
Eugene Delacroix

Painters use the studio as a metaphysical space that once entered they can explore different realities of their own imagination; a vision is uncovered and brought into reality. Like a mudlark searching the banks of rivers for items of value or an archaeologist retrieving bones from the earth the artist brings pictorial souvenirs back from each of these creative sites. This exhibition is a collection of works by 10 artists. They are mainly figurative works that are made in a variety of mediums including paint, pastel, glass and textile.

The works of Joana Galego are sensitive, vulnerable, loving subjects whose painterly images are snapshots of warming scenes, strangely comforting, like faded memories just out of reach.

With the paintings of Plum Cloutman her figures are staged in classy interiors or bright countryside, looping patterns and use a Romantic colour palette. Her unusual use of pastel and hairspray and Victorian-esque style create beautifully crafted works. Small in scale she also uses pareidolia, such as poodles in the clouds, to further bring to life objects and make each work a scene of a 19th Century play.

Alexander Fox-Robinson’s paintings also present a fictitious time. By using monochromatic tones he is able to build up vast landscapes filled with gestural, loose mark making, overlapping paint to create a flurry of dramatised figures, chaotic crowds, workers, animals, religious and occult symbolism.

Overlapping layers of paint is also vital to the work of Oliver Pearce, who uses drawing to build up and re work images until a scene is realised. Playful and majestic these images rely on objects to create a believable world, once scene flowing into the next.

There is also a sense of play in the paintings of Ruby Dickson whose recognisable textures and objects (toby jugs, snake skin, dentures, figures splayed on the ground), create a non sensical stage that questions the viewers association with each image and place.

Religious imagery also inspires the work of Peter Carrick, who uses the compositions of Renaissance and 19th Century religious artworks to showcase moments of belief and desire, using symbols such as the window or disco ball as an ever-present eye catching the personal scenes from above

Although inspired by Renaissance architecture evoking frescos or facades in earthy tones, the works of Gabriel Carucci use material in a futuristic, tactile fashion, using mosaics, painting and embroidery to make sculpted works that have a beautiful use of pattern and balance. Rather than a figurative subject they create an essence of place through his advanced practical ability to combine such a variety of mediums.

Jack Shearing’s works show an expressive handing of paint to capture wonderfully striking spaces as though they are in motion; windows, stairs, curtains all make you feel as if you are moving through space, his warm palette gives meaning to transitory spaces as if they are more important than where it is the viewer is going

Matthew Darby’s oeuvre is made up out of paintings, poetry and writing that come together, conjuring an on going tale of introspective musings, waiting out a storm or dancing alone at night. His paintings create a musical atmosphere, at one with the elements and emotionally charged.

Overall all the artists present use relatable objects, tactile surfaces, bodies and environments in their own unique fashion to create surreal worlds that present the multifaceted personality of each individual, combining together to make a multi-dimensional theatrical play that shows a very real and creative portrayal of each character involved.