The Art Shop, Abergavenny is curating regular exhibitions at the Michelin starred restaurant, the Walnut Tree Inn, showing works by some of our most dynamic and creative artists. Come and enjoy innovative and delicious dishes by one of Britain’s finest chefs, Shaun Hill, and sit amongst art by young, emerging artists and more established stars. An atmosphere brimming over with creative energy.
Please ask at either the Walnut Tree or The Art Shop to see a complete catalogue of artwork including full artists statements and prices. For all enquiries contact The Art Shop.
01873 852690 admin@artshopandchapel.co.uk
Arts Council of Wales Collectorplan scheme available. More information via the link below.
HELEN BOOTH – ‘I was drawn to visit Iceland to witness the harsh winter monochrome landscapes. It was effectively a rebirth. I sketched at the times the blizzards cleared, the miraculous imagery gave me a renewed vigour and the way to develop my painting.’
Helen studied at Wimbledon School of Art, graduating in Fine Art Painting in 1989.In 2019 Helen received a Pollock Krasner Award from New York for her painting and also 1 of the 12 International Abstract Painting Awards from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation in USA.
Helen Booth is exhibited at various galleries throughout the UK and her work is held in several private collections around the world.
DYLAN BOWEN – Dylan makes wheel thrown, handbuilt slip decorated functional earthenware. Influences include traditional slipware, music, outsider art, contemporary American ceramics and abstract expressionism.‘I think my work is an attempt to catch some glimpses of life’s euphoria and communicate them in the best way I can.’
Dylan studied at Camberwell School of Art (1989-91) and was assistant to various potters in the USA, before setting up his studio in Oxfordshire in 1998. He is widely exhibited and regularly shows at Ceramic Art London.
SARAH BRIDGLAND ma rca – Sarah is an artist living and working in Wales. She makes 3D paper constructions, which are reminiscent of foldout design elements from children’s books or models for theatre stages. They combine cut-outs from old magazines and books with drawn and painted imagery. The found objects and materials Sarah incorporates are characterized by a nostalgic touch and play with visual memory, recomposing its tracks and traces in a kaleidoscopic manner.
Sarah graduated with a BA Hons in Fine Art Printmaking (First Class) (University of Brighton) followed by an MA in Printmaking, (Royal College of Art, London).
LOUISE BROSNAN ma rca – Louise’s work draws on memories of childhood – anxieties and comforts, with references to toys, wallpaper and fabric woven into the accidental marks and textures of the paint.
Louise graduated with an MA from the Royal College of Art in 1988, after a printmaking extended study course and Fine Arts degree at Camberwell School of Arts. Since then she has successfully worked in many other art forms including textiles, film/animation and ceramics, with a recent return to painting.
CORNELIA O’DONOVAN ma rca – Cornelia O’Donovan plays with old folklore and poetry, but in a loose and dreamlike way. She draws particularly on tales native to the British Isles, and especially Celtic poetry and myth. Her paintings are flat, stripped of all perspective or realism, their surfaces hazy and meandering like an old tale retold a thousand times. Roughly rendered yet delicately arranged, she creates patterned compositions reminiscent of old tapestries into which she plants naïve pre-Modern motifs.
Cornelia O’Donovan trained at Royal College of Art graduating in 2006. Her work is held in private collections in the U.K. and overseas. She lives and works in London.
AMY SHUCKBURGH – Amy’s work combines broad strokes, bold colour and delicate lines, seeking out the emotional core of her subjects. Her landscapes of Cornwall, Wales, the Isle of Man, France as well as London, capture a personal search for space, with instinctive mark-making and use of colour.
Amy trained at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, the Royal Drawing School and the Slade School of Art. Her portrait of the late Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, completed from sittings in 2006, is permanently displayed at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London. She lives and works in London
CLEMENTINA VAN DER WALT – Clementina has been a significant force in South African ceramics for the last three decades. Here is an artist working with a unique purity and vibrancy, from outside the British ceramic tradition.
‘Visually the African urban and rural landscapes provide a source of pattern, texture and colour which I apply in my ceramic work.’
‘Clementina’s platters, bowls and cups serve as objects both for use and for contemplation…’
JAMES & TILLA WATERS – ‘Our pots are in the tradition of functional domestic ware. We were taught by Rupert Spira, who was taught by Michael Cardew and he in turn by Bernard Leach. There is therefore a legacy of ideas and techniques influencing our work. Yet our collaborative working practice is an extension of our relationship and circumstances, and particular to us. An awareness of the heritage may be important in understanding our work but we don’t feel constrained by it. Functionality provides the immediate rationale for our pots – bowl, vase, beaker – these archetypal forms are our starting points. But aesthetic concerns are important enough that more time is spent on each pot than would be the case in producing purely functional pots.’