This exhibition will contain my latest pieces that work with pattern, including three never before exhibited pieces, alongside some portraits. There will also be a selection of prints available to purchase.

The gallery is open from 8am to 8pm seven days a week, with free parking and a cafe, plus a selection of designer craft work.

Also on site there is a sports clinic, gym and excellent tennis facilities.

Accompanying Artist Statement:

As an artist I am very much inspired by technical skill in all art forms, and with every new piece it is often the act of drawing itself, rather than the finished work, that is the driving force behind each idea. Despite having worked in many different media in the past I always find myself going back to a good old-fashioned pencil, because I love the simplicity. I am interested in techniques that allow you to create shape and texture on a completely flat piece of paper, and render the subtle tones in skin, or the ripples of fabric, giving an image depth, movement and life.

My recent work on pattern developed from yearly visits to Indonesia and Thailand, where my family lived for 12 years. I was inspired by the designs used in Buddhist temples, and how every surface is completely covered in decoration. Subsequent research into Islamic art and the arabesque led me to experiment with quilling, and I started to introduce more flowing lines into my designs. Most recently I have been exploring how to link my photographic pencil style drawings with the pattern work, and it is this theme that I am working on at the moment.

About the other artists...

Carole Hawthorne

The dynamics of colour is the predominant factor in Carole’s work and she is inspired by its infinite and limitless possibilities.  Carole’s preferred medium is acrylic paint on canvas or paper and usually works on a series of paintings.  Although her work is abstract, she is often motivated by observations of her surroundings, both natural and manufactured, organised systems, layers and repetitive structures.  Also, the effect of changing light is important to her sense of colour.

The paintings are developed through a process of masking and layering, revealing colours and controlling their interaction.  The vertical marks or dots used in the paintings are a formal device which allows her the freedom to be able to detach the work from the original image and to create a visual field empty of compositional form.  Carole builds the surface, merging it and breaking it down, allowing the painting to evolve through the process in its own time into ‘itself’.  Recently Carole has been attempting to evoke a feeling or sensation of moving through from ‘our space’ into another space beyond.  In some cases there is a barrier which both conceals and discloses this other space.

Carole’s hope is that the paintings will engage the viewer, stimulate their senses and provide a vehicle for contemplation.  The intention is that new depths will be discovered each time the viewer returns.