UPSTAIRS at THE ART SHOP, CROSS STREET & DOWNSTAIRS at the CHAPEL, MARKET STREET

PAINTINGS, MIXED MEDIA DRAWINGS, PRINTMAKING, JEWELLERY, CERAMICS

A joyful, eclectic collection for the season to lift your spirits, with new and familiar artists and makers. Be sure to visit both our venues. Please enquire to see further work by an individual artist.

Highlights…

STUART LOW – ‘The work I make in my studio begin with time spent outdoors – walking in the landscape, noticing how weather, light and season affect a place and my presence in it. I’m drawn to the notion of deep time, particularly to rock-strewn, mountainous landscapes – the distant and “over there” – but equally to the immediate and “under foot” : emerging springs from hillsides, cairns that guide in the mist, lichen on stone, the earthy decay of a tree in a forest. The natural world is cyclical, growing, shedding and returning. In paying attention to these changes I find a mirror to our own impermanence. Painting for me, is a quiet way of reflecting on this momentariness and finding beauty in it.’

JACOB BUCKLAND – Jacob is a landscape painter, a graduate in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art. He makes paintings of landscape and nature, based on direct observation and memory.  The work explores colour and mark making, focusing on variations in weather and season. Colour washes are left to chance and combined with more precise lines, as a way of layering and reflecting both the structural and ephemeral qualities found in nature.

CATHERINE BAKER – ‘I took part in the ‘Back to Basics’ international artists residency at Arteles Creative Center, Haukijarvi, Finland, for the month of August this year. ‘Back to Basics’ meant going analogue, seeing if we could go without our phones and social media for the month. It allowed us to relax into our own rhythm of creativity, without any external pressure or distractions. I fell under the spell of the enchanted forest, just a few paces away from the live/work space, especially noticing the shapes of the lichen on birch bark: a secret language, recalling ancient signs and symbols. I also loved the atmospheric stillness of the lake nearby, recalling misty dawns and dusks. I filled my sketchbook with drawings and notes of colour and form which inspired my work in the studio. Spreading paper on the floor, using big brushes, stencilling and tools fashioned from objects collected from the forest ground, I worked on many images at once, letting my intuition flow, along with the memory of my walks in the forest and by the lake.

TARRAGON SMITH – Tarragon Smith was born in Canada, on the banks of the Cataraqui River. Water remains an integral part of his life. He crossed an ocean to London to take his MFA in painting from Central Saint Martins, and has remained in the UK ever since. His experience as a painter and his experience as an immigrant continue to inform his ceramic practice.

COLETTE WOODS – Her hand-built ceramics, created in stoneware, fuse inspiration from the classical world with a very modern enchantment. Her work is bold and robust, sculpted to its core identity, where form is everything and colour is pared back to a magical flourish. Colette’s paintings are informed by her ceramics and vice versa, a two-way transference occurs and both are made with the happiness of daily life in mind. Everything is created to be used and to celebrate daily life, bringing purity and visual pleasure to the table or wall.  Each day is important – nothing should be saved for best.

THE SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE WAY TO BUY ART – Interest free credit on all original artwork over £100. Ask us for more details or click the link above.