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Baker Tilly: Summer 2010 | ||
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members of the
Claire Anderson
says that, having
graduated from UCA, Farnham in 2006, she feels that she is now gaining
confidence in her own work and is developing her own particular style. She
loves experimenting with new techniques and mixing media, from textiles and
paper-making to graphic design and bookmaking with everything from
back to
top In this exhibition her works Boundary Lines I to III concern borders. Maureen says ‘The Mexicans used standing stones, depicting cactus, to mark boundaries round their city of Tenochtitian, until they were overthrown by Cortés. We need boundaries for security. Only by stepping over boundaries can new patterns emerge. I consciously challenge the boundaries between media. In these pictures the boundary is set in the middle to emphasise the differing, but equally valid, views from each side.’ The works entitled Bulrushes II and III are about life renewing itself. Over many seasons past lives are layered and interwoven as looking through the bulrushes backwards to another time.
Clare Bailey completed a Foundation course in Art and Design at Ipswich College, followed by a BA Hons in Expressive Arts at Brighton Polytechnic and a part-time course in Vocal studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Subsequently she worked in Fine Art Decoration and Historical Reconstruction including projects at Tirana Children’s Hospital, St John’s Lodge, Regent’s Park, Eltham Palace, the RAC Club and The National Portrait Gallery. Claire works almost exclusively with landscape being interested in the sub-surface unity of nature: its silent voice, its luminous presence. For the past two years she has used etching as her predominant medium. Working with a hard ground and traditional tools she makes repeated and rhythmic marks building up the idea of unity, but breaking down tonal mass and line. She says “When I stand before the predominance of nature it seems that something from within me flies out to it and then, like an unheard harmonic something from it comes back to me. It is this that I am chasing. I hope that the work will strike a chord, drawing myself and the viewer into a greater intimacy with the subject/object. As is often the way when taking a new direction, threads can be found that weave back to earlier influences. From this present position working mainly with etching I am reminded of seeing for the first time a Chinese ink landscape and also looking a lot at Victorian books full of good girls and steel engravings.” Exhibitions of Claire’s work have been at RWA Open painting, UCCA Mentorship scheme at The New Ashgate Gallery, Kilnhanger Arts and at the Allen Gallery in Alton with the Borderlands Consortium.
Tessa Christie studied at The University for the Creative Arts at Farnham and The Slade School, London after which she has lived and worked in Farnham. She says that she loves architecture and inventing architectural ornament but “Best of all, though, is its dramatic rush of perspective!”
Susan Czopor has been painting in her studio at home since completing a BA Hons Fine Art degree at University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. She also produces handbuilt functional ceramics one of which, a female torso vase, was displayed at The V&A Museum in 2003. After her MA in Ceramics at UWIC Cardiff Susan also makes slip cast tea sets which are currently on sale at the Brighton Designers’ Gallery joined recently by an exhibition of her paintings. “My paintings and ceramics seek to invoke joy through the expressive use of colour, pattern and decorative motifs, with main influences being Klimt, Chagall, Ann Redpath and Joan Eardley” says Susan. She also accepts commissions, including portraits, two of which were selected for The National Portrait Gallery DoubleTake Exhibition and Artists and Illustrators magazine. Her paintings provide an uplifting effect on permanent display at The Royal Surrey County Hospital, St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester and St Mark’s Hospital, in Harrow. One of her paintings was selected for the RA Summer Exhibition and she has exhibited in Germany, Holland, London, Cornwall and Yorkshire. Her work has also featured in several university dissertations. Locally Susan exhibits with the Borderlands Consortium and Farnham Art Society and she takes part in the Surrey Artists’ Open Studios in June.
Meg Harris Williams is an artist, writer and teacher and her work is based on landscape and on life-drawing. She uses her drawings of the moving figure as the basis for printmaking, and merges these with tonal or textural qualities abstracted from landscape sketches or from photos of nature. Currently her images are either etchings, printed by hand in the traditional way, or digital images worked on the computer through merging and layering which are then printed in pigment-based archival-quality inks on Canon Fine Art paper. All prints are signed and numbered with an edition size between 10 (for hand-printed etchings) and 25 (for archival digital prints). Meg’s work is in private collections in this country, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Scandinavia, the USA, Argentina and Australia, and in the New Hall Women’s Art Collection, Cambridge. Recent group exhibitions in which her work has been included are Women’s Work, Willis Museum, Basingstoke, The Allen Gallery, Alton, South Hill Park, Bracknell, The Society of Women Artists and The Mall Galleries, London.
Jan Hite tinkered with ceramics as the three-dimensional element of A-level Art many years ago. On returning to ceramics some ten years ago she began to produce figurative clay sculptures. Inevitably with the acquisition of a kiln and with clay supplies around her she was drawn towards the ceramic vessel. The plastic properties of the material allow her to experiment with forms and shapes. Jan handbuilds with coils, and sometimes slabs, to produce large pots using various geometric shapes and prefers to use simple glazes which allow the method of construction to be apparent. She also produces figurative sculptures which are taken from life.
Rosemary Miller SWA works purely in watercolour but enjoys using various media to explore her interest in complex patterns of shape, light, colour and texture. She says ‘The enormous opportunities provided by an unusual viewpoint or subject are my inspiration.’ Her contemporary figurative work is produced both in her studio and outside on location both in the UK and abroad. For several years she has exhibited at the Mall Galleries with the Royal Society of Marine Artists and Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. She is a member of the Society of Women Artists and in 2005 was awarded the Anthony J Lester Art Critic Award at its annual exhibition. In 2005 and 2007 she won the Derwent Artist Magazine Award at Patchings. Besides being a member of the Maritime Art Group and Borderlands Consortium, she runs watercolour classes and courses throughout the year.
Sally Northwood trained as a painter at Reading University where she subsequently took an Art Teachers’ Diploma and then taught in Trinidad, Tanzania, Suffolk and Surrey. Having been brought up on a farm in Warwickshire she drew and painted from early childhood. While teaching in Haslemere she began work on intricate watercolours of plants and trees. Sally began making large, detailed drawings of the head from life during a part-time mature students degree course at West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham. Sally says “My work stems from my interest in the human head. I spend between four and six hours on a drawing from life. Sometimes I have an idea for the finished work before I start, more often the drawing itself dictates the final result. I like to work on a large scale as it enables me to include more detailed information and gives the figure greater impact. I want them to be confrontational. I generally use my drawings as preparation for prints or paintings but recently have allowed the drawings to stand as finished works.” Her work has been exhibited in Dar es Salaam, Cyprus, France, Rome and in London at the RA Summer Exhibition and the National Print Exhibition. Locally her work has been included in Yvonne Arnaud Art in 2006, Tilthams Farm, Godalming, Shepherds’ Market in London, Ochre Studios, The Allen Gallery in Alton with the Borderlands Consortium and Surrey Open Art at The Lightbox in Woking. Her painting Two Figures is in the collection of Surrey Institute of Art and Design.
Sue Ogilvy has painted all her life but worked first as a nutritionist and then as a science teacher in secondary schools. Having retired from teaching she recently graduated from The University of Creative Arts in Farnham and has more time to pursue her love of painting! She says “I am inspired by the myriad forms, patterns and colours found in the natural world and I am concerned that we sustain this natural environment. One of the issues I have explored concerns British endangered species. I seek to show in the image how a particular species is disintegrating and is in danger of being lost. I have also investigated the mathematics underpinning natural forms, for example the logarithmic spirals found in shells, sunflowers and pinecones. Recently I have looked at the wonderful colours and shapes of flowers in the autumn when the petals are beginning to droop and fade.” Sue works in a variety of media including print, pencil, watercolour and acrylic and she is experimenting with multiple layers within the image.
Maureen Putnam has been interested in the Arts throughout her life and she has always drawn and painted. After a long spell bringing up the family alongside being an active partner in the antique trade, she took the opportunity to fulfil her original wish to attend a course at Art College. From 1989 - 1993 she studied a Fine Art degree course at West Surrey College of Art, as it was then known, followed by a teaching course at Guildford College, enabling her to teach at the Further Education Centre in Farnham for ten years. Since her retirement Maureen has painted constantly, exhibiting both locally and in London. She says ‘My work is always inspired by 'feelings', be they about personal circumstance or colour and shape relationships. Chance placing of one colour against another can engender excited emotional response.’
Sylvia Raymont takes as her inspiration the richness of the natural world, the diverse landscape of the Downs, woodlands, rivers and ponds around this area of Surrey and its borders. Observation of patterns, texture, movement and exciting colour combinations are all reflected in her work which are developed from her location sketches. Sylvia says ‘Experimenting with different techniques, working with various materials and exploring new ideas helps to keep my work fresh. This natural progression no doubt springs from my many years’ experience as a designer frequently responding to the challenge for new ideas from clients around the world. Interpreting ideas in collage has resulted in an individual style, leading to my very recent work in mixed media which has a greater freedom and richness of texture.’
Claire Waterhouse trained at Ravensbourne College of Design & Communication and gained her degree in 3D Design. Thereafter she was offered employment at Royal Doulton, which she rejected in preference for creating her own ceramics, running a workshop in South London, creating hand thrown highly decorative earthenware. It was through working in Adult Education and as an Artist in Residence that she came to realise her love for teaching art. She has worked as a teacher of art and ceramics for 20 years, although more recently she has decided to focus on creating more of her own ceramics from her new studio in Haslemere.
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