A collection of artists from Northumberland and beyond.
Alexandra Peters
In my work I explore and challenge the natural world in relation to human environments by constructing a narrative of nature invading personal space. By situating living plants and organisms into these somber and strange human surroundings, I am able to create a visual metaphor for the seemingly emotionless figures that I depict. By juxtaposing these characteristics, I produce a sense of two different moments being created simultaneously.
Inuit Fine Art (Cape Dorset)
From Leslie Boyd, curator: Inuit artists have their own very distinct individual styles, techniques and approaches to their art making. Themes and subjects tend to be more specific to their environment and lifestyle. Arctic animals, the land and family are typical subjects, for both the older and newer generations.
Bill Tomlinson
People have always interested me more than any other subject matter. Landscape, abstraction and still life may provide equal range for the use of form and design in the service of beauty and expression, but because we naturally identify with people who are the subject of paintings, I think the expression is more powerful and personal. The beauty of the human figure, and especially the nude, touches us more deeply and personally. No matter who I am painting, nude or clothed, the human relations established between artist and model are very important to me. I have never been able to bring myself to do a drawing or painting of someone I dislike.
Bob ‘Omar’ Tunnoch (Marmora)
The natural world has always fascinated me, ever since I was a kid. Watching how we have become so disconnected from our environment is disturbing to me. By showing audiences certain remarkable lifeforms, along with the relationship we currently have with them, it makes me hopeful that people will search for a deeper understanding and respect for the world around us.
Fiona Crangle
Art history is told largely through the viewfinder of cisgendered male artists, women objectified in their male gaze. In appropriating art history, I put into play the politics of looking and being looked at. I collaborate with sitters to increase their agency and amplify their voice as a woman looking at women, telling women’s stories.
Frances Ferdinands
I come from a tropical country - Sri Lanka. Colour is in my blood, one might say. Colour to me also conveys joy, which is important more than ever now. Colour is an important element not only in South Asian culture, but in Middle Eastern culture, so my pattern sources from temples or mosques are very colourful. I see colour as a political statement as it asserts the rich heritage of these cultures, as well being life-affirming.
Jana Ewart
When I first started to paint, I attempted to reproduce what I saw, so my work was realistic as were my colours. In New Mexico, while painting the rugged landscape, red soil, adobes, big skies of the high desert, everything changed and was no longer constrained by realism. I felt free to experiment with bold colours and bold brushstrokes. My work has grown from there.
Judy Hopkins
My preferred palette is made up of earth tones, which I find lend themselves beautifully to my rural themes. In my landscapes the time of day and light source dictate the lighting. Tints on tones and contrasting values can create dramatic areas of light and dark that help direct the viewer’s eyes through the painting.
Kathy Keates
I love how I feel when I see someone wearing my art. It is a very rewarding and satisfying feeling. Now my art travels beyond the confines of a gallery or the walls of a home. As a photographer/designer, my eye now seeks out scenes that will make the perfect design and this has added a new spark to my passion.
Kelly Kirkham
Play is a recurring theme in my work, creating make-believe worlds with objects like puppets, small toy-like sculpture, and fantastical landscapes and creatures. I love the connection with our child selves, how we all come with play memories that may interact in novel or nostalgic ways with my pieces.
Lucy Manley
I apply paint to the canvas in a way that leaves the stroke impression while allowing some blending as well. I keep shapes in mind - large, medium and small - and focus on directing the path the eye travels through the piece.
Luke Despatie
My subject matter is inspired by my daily travels around Northumberland County. Some scenes are mundane, some are strikingly beautiful, some are both – I want to express all of those things in my work. My style started as a way to represent glistening snow in an early ice fishing hut painting, but evolved into a technique that’s wonderful at capturing vividly expressive skies that have a real sense of movement.
Melanie Brown
Sometimes I don't discover my subject until partway into a painting. I'll have a little 'aha' moment and realize what the painting is about. Perhaps it's the turn of a leaf, a colour relationship, a repetition of shapes. Could be anything that speaks in the language of painting.
Michiko Nakamura
When creating, I search for an unseen form in accordance with my sensibility. I used to be a designer. First, you start with a drawing and then the technical part follows. In my work now, I have to feel for it. I don’t know how a sculpture will look. I have to find how it a little bit at a time. The more I work on it, the more I can see what the sculpture will be. I get excited the closer I get. I want the sculpture to release itself. When I find it, I know the work is complete.
Murray Sage
First I print, then I ponder. Then realize what it is or what it reminds me of. My piece “Zero Rock" is named after an actual place. Zero Rock is between Vancouver Island and the American Gulf Islands, right on the border. We dove there: dark grey winter day above, brilliant colours below the surface and the print reminded me of that. It could just as easily have been titled something like "Spring rain over Abergavenny”.
Nigel Dickson
I create a new photograph series every year or so, so that I still feel I can call myself a photographer. The inspiration for these collections come randomly at any time. My bottle cap series, for instance, came from my finding an interesting bottle cap in the 70s. I thought it would make a good collection, but didn’t have the time to execute it until a few years ago. The ideas happen naturally.
Paul Bailey
My style is existential. I paint my life; what is happening to me in the moment. I paint what I feel about what I see. Over the years, I hope I’ve gotten better at sharing the emotional connection; improved my craft and technical skills, my drawing. I love to draw.
Peter Holton
Much of my more recent subject matter is based around my experiences travelling, encountering new things that initially seem almost surreal because they are so far from anything that you have known previously.
Phil Goldsmith
In both my linocutting and watercolours, my approach is fairly straight forward. I like to look for beautiful scenes, relationships, colours and patterns in our everyday world. Sometimes these are found in a scene and other times in details. These moments or scenes are ephemeral and often not seen in the hurly burly of life.
Steve Snider
Much of my more recent subject matter is based around my experiences travelling, encountering new things that initially seem almost surreal because they are so far from anything that you have known previously.
Phil Goldsmith
In both my linocutting and watercolours, my approach is fairly straight forward. I like to look for beautiful scenes, relationships, colours and patterns in our everyday world. Sometimes these are found in a scene and other times in details. These moments or scenes are ephemeral and often not seen in the hurly burly of life.
Steve Snider
For an illustrator who is used to doing a lot of detail for the art director/client, becoming looser as a painter is always a challenge. If you want to be looser in the paintings you have to work at it more and learn to simplify scenes, the buildings, trees, people…everything. They’re more fun to paint in the long run.
Sue Wilkins
With past and current works, I focus on evoking stillness or tranquility. I would hope the viewer feels drawn into the painting and comfortable to stay awhile, finding passages within that resonate with them personally. Even with a storm-threatening sky there can be a peaceful stillness. This is where I am most comfortable myself, so it is natural I put this quietude into my paintings.
Terry Copleston
The darkness in my paintings is about hope. Painting the whole canvas black is like letting myself see into the dark, into the painting. It turns into a finding exercise. Specifically for ‘Fractured Hope’, I didn’t like the first draft of a painting so I blacked it out, took it into the shower to wash parts of it off, and then lived with it for a while, talking about it with my husband. It grew from there.
Michael Everett Glover
I generally find my subject matter by exploring new places, travelling roads that I haven’t yet driven. This is one of the many reasons that I absolutely refuse to travel anywhere by air… I never paint anything that I haven’t been personally involved with, a place that I haven’t visited.
Wrex Wroth
Having a background in architecture, I’m attracted to cityscapes. A big advantage, I believe, is my understanding of perspective, but most important is the composition of harmony and conflict together.