We are pleased to present a diverse group exhibition of
affordable paintings by Artists selected from the Ovenden
Contemporary portfolio:
Helen Jones
Hannah Biggs BA (Hons)
Mike Bell Dip AD Hons
Mark Woods BA(Hons)
Anna Laurini
Peter McCarthy
Needhams
Restaurant & Art Gallery
186 Main Street, Witchford,
Ely, Cambs CB6 2HT
1st June to 16th August 2007
Helen Jones began painting, for the first time since childhood, in order to deal with the boredom and isolation of her relocation to Northamptonshire in 2002. Since then, the practice of painting has become so much more important, rebuilding Helen's confidence and, perhaps more significantly, providing an outlet for a particularly distressing chidbirth experience. Now, as a mother of two small children, Helen can't stop painting and experimenting and has developed her skills significantly in a few short years.
Her land and seascapes betray a lingering sense of isolation. You can almost hear Jones willing the storm to pass. In several paintings it does pass and you feel the same sense of relief that Helen must feel as she paints. Her abstracts, by contrast, rely on the relationships and interplay of geometry as a metaphor for the course of her life. You can almost see her 'putting the pieces back together' as though life is some giant tile puzzle.
Mike Bell spent 30 years living and working near the striking coastline of Northumberland and now lives in the beautiful wilds of Redesdale, not far from the Scottish borders. This exposure to such striking and inspirational landscapes has instilled in Bell a fascination with the patterns of the environment around him. He uses a variety of found objects, such as sand, driftwood, holographic foils and even seaweed to convey the complex relationships between the chaos and order he sees in these patterns.
Bell has is in the middle of an extraordinary professional career and has recently been awarded the 2006 Palm Art Award from Art Domain in Liepzig, Germany, winning second prize from an impressive selection of international Artists. He regularly features at the prestigious Biscuit Factory in Newcastle, along with many others in the UK and abroad.
Woods tends to represent the present time as though it has already passed, adding nostalgia and a hint of longing to otherwise familiar scenes. It's as if he is sketching, recording our world for a future generation, rather than us.
The Italian Artist Anna Laurini is inspired by the abstract expressionism movement but has developed a unique, quite informal style, using a mix of acrylic paint, collage and other media. Her work is vibrant and colourful, perhaps as a result of her experiences living and working in Italy, London, New York, & Australia. Her travels have endowed her portfolio with a charismatic, transient quality and one gets the impression that it is all cartography- she is mapping the course of her life, or leaving trail of bread crumbs behind her.
Laurini doesn't just wear her heart on her sleeve, she pours it out onto her paintings and sketches. Her sketchbook, particularly, is littered with notes and scribbles that run a thick yellow highlighter pen through the sadness, the betrayal, the loss that she feels when important relationships end. This honesty combines with her tourist's perspective and forms a potent blend of expression that demands to be considered.
At first glance, the graceful landscapes of the accomplished Suffolk Artist Peter McCarthy, appear to be a response to the vast flat vistas of the Fenlands, where McCarthy spent some periods of his life. Further consideration of these simple, but beautiful paintings, however, leads us to wonder about the solitude of these scenes. There are many places in the Fens where you could imagine that you are the only person for a thousand miles in any direction and the endless skies can make a person feel very insignificant. McCarthy's landscapes, however richly painted, somehow capture this sense of isolation and his trees, even when grouped, are still alone.
