Oxfordshire Artweeks Exhibition - featuring work by Rachel Ducker, Helen Slater and Nicola Jenkin

We have a fantastic exhibition approaching as part of Artweeks which brings together exciting work by three Oxfordshire-based artists.

 

Here is a sneak preview of some of the work to be shown...

Nicola Jenkin has been working with mixed media, including charcoal, bleach and ink, to create exquisite, large-scale pieces for this exhibition. Her work has such vitality and depth, created both through the build-up of layers on the paper and richness of colour.
 

 

The energy of her work is echoed in Rachel Ducker's wire figures, with their dynamic gestures or quiet, contemplative poses. Rachel's work is constantly evolving and we're looking forward to showing some of her most recent work.

Alongside this work is Helen Slater's distinctive glass drawings. These drawings are given depth by layering several together and setting them within glass, the colour of which helps convey a mood.

 

More information about this exhibition can be found on our website.

 

Oxfordshire Artweeks Exhibition

PAUL KESSLING LANDSCAPES

Paul Kessling creates much of his work around the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. Many of his paintings focus on a tree-lined track that is named in his paintings as ‘private road’, and has been depicted by Paul in all lights, weather conditions and times. Paul's training in sculpture takes on particular significance in these paintings, as the sculptural forms of the trees sit imposingly within the landscape.

These are a few examples of new work by Paul we have in the gallery, more can be seen on our website.

Six Trees

Private Road East

 

 Morning, Private Road

We also have a small collection of his inks and watercolours, for which he is best known. Using the dramatic shapes of the land and the fleeting changes in weather he creates contemplative landscapes with extraordinary depth of colour.

Hawthorn

SPRING FLING EXHIBITION - New work by Alison McWhirter and Chris Taylor

1st - 24th March 2013

 

We’ve received a few pieces of artwork ready for our upcoming Spring exhibition, so we’re excited to be able to give you a sneak preview of what to expect!

 

 

First is a beautiful oil painting by Scottish artist Alison McWhirter. To date, Alison’s work has focused largely on intimate still lifes of flowers and this, ‘Peace Roses with Superstar’, is one of her more recent paintings. As always it’s so difficult to capture the textures and true feel in a photograph, and this is such an energising painting it’s worth seeing in the flesh, but these photographs go some way to illustrating this.

 

 

Alison uses bold colours and brushwork, often mixing the colour on the canvas to create a spontaneous feel, enhancing the simplicity of the subject. This simplicity is what makes her paintings so strong, so engaging, and her choice of framing adds a touch of drama which finishes them beautifully.

 

 

Second is a wonderfully quirky vase from ceramicist Chris Taylor. Chris recently completed an MA at the Royal College of Art, and has developed a truly unique collection of work which is exciting and endlessly intriguing. He uses a variety of techniques to glaze his terracotta vases, many of which are altered in some way after throwing to create a-symmetric vessels. Using highly decorative pattern and glaze, he combines gloss and matt surfaces, pattern and bare clay, resulting in pieces that are extremely tactile. These photographs show one of his vases, an ancient-looking shape, with complex layers of glaze, pattern and colour that work together to create, as Chris says, ‘a sense of history to the surface’.

 

 

 

This exhibition runs until 24th March, with a private view on 28th February.

Click here for further information.

Animal Bronzes by Stephen Page

We’ve just received some tiny animal bronzes from sculptor Stephen Page. Standing at just over 4cm high (the pictures below are almost life-size!), each has a beautiful surface finish and a minimal design that would not look out of place in a cave painting! They really need to be held to appreciate their weight and their cool, smooth surface.

 

We have a rhino, a bear, a ram, a bison and a boar from his ‘Beasts’ range, and we’re looking forward to showing some of Stephen’s larger bronze sculptures in a few months’ time.

 

Rhino

 

Bear

Bison

Boar

Ram

New Paintings by Erin Ward

Autumn

We’re excited to have just received some new work from artist Erin Ward. Erin is new to the gallery and her evocative paintings are intuitive responses to observed horizons. “My recent series of works are inspired from visits to coastal regions, particularly the east Coast, Cornwall ad Norfolk…areas where the sea meets the land and rivers, where salt water meets fresh water are a fascination. Hard rock against water, the meeting of two extremes…”

Often worked from memory and allowing the process of painting to become as much a part of the work as the image, she brings life to the often flat medium of acrylics by working the paint on the canvas; mixing, lifting and reworking layers of paint.

We are pleased to show five of her paintings, which can be seen on our website.

Ochre Sky

Evening, Distant Light

CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION

We have lights, we have beautiful handblown glass baubles; Christmas has officially arrived at the gallery!

Our Christmas Exhibition features work by a whole host of wonderful artists, including Kathy Ramsay Carr, Jenny Devereux, Maya Selway, Gwen Bainbridge, Elin Isaksson, Poppy Dandiya and many more. See our website for more details of the work on show, along with our extended opening hours in December. We hope to see you in the Gallery soon!

 

 

CLAIRE WILTSHER SOLO EXHIBITION

 

The gallery looks wonderful with a solo exhibition of work by artist Claire Wiltsher having been hung this week. Claire’s paintings are textural, atmospheric and vibrant.

 

Fragments of collage and layers of paint are built up on the canvas, then scratched into and reworked to reveal hidden colours beneath. By throwing, flicking and spreading paint on to the canvas the abstract energy of each piece is formed. These textures sit in harmony with the subject matter, holding the intense colour and light that pushes through her paintings, blurring the image and evoking a feeling or memory of a place.

 

The exhibition runs until 25th October, so be sure to drop by the gallery to have a look!




Silver, 60 x 60cm framed



Deep in the Forest, 80 x 80cm unframed



Forest Theatre, 80 x 80cm unframed