Curated by Gallery owner Karina Phillips, the exhbition explores the way in which five different artists work with colour and the impact that this has on their work and practice.
The Gallery is delighted to announce that an extremely rare and valuable, and recently discovered book on colour theory will be on display on 26th March 2015. The book, published in 1805, and the earliest known book on colour theory written by a woman is entitled ‘An Essay on Light and Shade’. The author, Mary Gartside, was a Georgian water colourist who exhibited at the Royal Academy. Her work on colour was overlooked for many years. The publication would not have been large, and only a few copies remain in existence. Dr Alexandra Loske has made a study of her life and works and is able to place her in an art history context in a tradition of colour theorists. The book was discovered in the USA by an antiquarian book dealer and has been brought back to the UK for inclusion in this exhibition prior to its eventual sale.
Robin Richmond is one of the finest painters currently exhibiting in the UK and this collection of paintings takes us from the rainforests of the Amazon to the rock formations of Utah and Arizona and from the lushness of a French Lake to a Venetian sunset. Though non figurative, there is nonetheless a landscape with a suggestion of horizons, sky above and land or water below. The colour and indeed the texture in her paintings is evocative, saturating the senses with an impression of her experiences and responses.
Sculptor Guy Portelli communicates his ideas about his subjects through a kaleidescope of colour and media. With ‘Rocket Man’ a sculptural portrait of Elton John, he literally has constructed a kaleidescope through which we view Elton’s life and work. ‘Go For It’ is a joyful celebration of nature with heavily mosaiced dragonflies in blissful union.
Painter Martyn Baldwin produces abstracted and textured landscapes and portraits which demonstrate the way in which the layers of colour can applied and then removed to reveal new layers.
Johannes Von Stumm is best known for sculpture comprised of different elements - stone, glass, bronze, steel - in geomtric forms, but here we see the way in which he has used colour and glass to produce works which are clearly recognisable as Von Stumm works, but which he has been able to produce in larger editions to give an entry level to collecting his work.
Mark Paul-Perry is largely self taught. His work is about the capture of emotions and inflenced by events in his own life. The use of colour is fundamental to him in conveying emotion and is clearly demonstrated in the work on view