Upstairs at The Art Shop, Cross Street 

PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS & PRINTMAKING

STEVE BROCKETT’s semi-abstract canvases are distilled thoughts, thick with symbolic figures and animals, historic references and mythical reimagining. They are immersed in the rich earthy hues and potent skies intrinsic to the landscapes of Spain that inspire his work. The content and technique of his paintings present the viewer with images that are both arresting and challenging. The distorted visualisations are simultaneously familiar but mysterious, raw and sensual, imposing yet fragile.

Painting is flirting with the subconscious, using mark making and colour until an image starts to emerge. I rarely start a painting with a pre-planned outcome. For me it’s about deconstructing and reorganising – the abstract marks sometimes seize on and link to a small element that then expands. A work can be ‘stuck’ for days until there comes a point of resonance and a coming together which evokes an emotional response.

LOIS HOPWOOD originally trained in Fine Art, followed by work as a Textile Conservator at Hampton Court Palace and then studied screen design at the National Film and Television School.

Drawing has always been at the heart of her landscape pictures. Bringing together Fine Art and set design she selects sketches and projects them, taking landscape drawing through a process that gives it back a sense of scale. In 2010 she won the ING Drawing prize at the Mall Galleries. Her paintings in oil are about capturing of the spirit of the place, a walk on the Beacon. As time goes on, a painting become less about a picture of a landscape and more about the paint itself, becoming abstract. The small paintings of birds are drawings in free hand over the top of abstract panels, making something appear out of nothing. As we all know February 14th is traditionally when birds begin nest building and looking for a mate.

FLORA MCLACHLAN works from her print studio in West Wales, on the edge of a wild moor, surrounded by lichened trees. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) andam currently doing an MA in Fine Art at Aberystwyth School of Art.

My work grows out of the experience of observing the landscape. I want to evoke a single charmed moment out of time, a magical vision that stills. The scene is our ancient and enchanted landscape, roamed by guardian spirit-like animals, shadowed by woods where the holly springs green amongst the bare oaks and beeches. I am inspired by the fairy tales I grew up reading, and by the motif of the quest in the medieval romance poetry I read during my English degree. For me etching is a slow and reflective process. The image moves through many stages of biting in the mordant, as I add layers of line, texture, shadow and meaning, watching the image slowly become itself. I want the image to look like a weathered relic from the distant past, briefly come alive for us to see.

 

Please enquire to see further work by an individual artist.

Arts Council of Wales Collectorplan scheme available. More information via the link below.