Hallowed Ground Sarah Purvey 13 November - 12 December 2015
Landscape is such a precious part of an artist’s perspective, whether it is the physical landscape of the planet, or indeed the inner landscape of thought and spirit. Both are imbued with meaning and understanding that are integral to the character and personality of the artist, the life path that they have followed and are following, and the perspectives that they project onto their creative outlet, namely their work. The artist Sarah Purvey is a creative individual who has landscape, in its broadest sense, as part of the focused centre of her work and of her outward and inward personal and working perspective. She understands that creativity has to work on more than just the level of analytical observation; it also has to be felt. In order to be intuitively understood, there has to be an emotional element contained within the work, as well as within the artist. Sarah is able to use both ideals of landscape in order to produce work that has anchor points of belonging, which the perspective of landscape gives us. She deftly intertwines these seemingly disjointed landscapes into one projection, entwining the subtleties of the external landscape in which she lives and observes, as well as the internal landscape in which she feels and understands. Both are vital to her work and both are used within a perspective of belonging. Working in clay, the soil of the land in some respects, has given Sarah a raw and immediate connection with her environment. She moves through a creative landscape, feeling her way with sensitive hands towards an understanding of space and time. The artist works with the internal and external voids that her vessels produce. Much of her work she admits is spontaneous and instinctive, she feels and feeds each piece, as each piece feels and feeds her in turn. This highly personalised approach has given Sarah a creative direction that incorporates so much of herself in her work. By feeling her way through the clay, she is able to travel through a process that can be both spontaneous, and highly personal. With a particularly muted and limited colour palette, the artist is free to explore surface and textural qualities that can often become confused, even subsumed within colour considerations. Sarah’s colour tones speak of the environment, of the combinations of subtlety that is so much a part of the British landscape, through its soft, muted tones within the land, and its large subdued skies, whatever colours there are in the landscape are so often imbued with variations of delicate tonal subtlety. These are all signs of an artist that is so attuned to the landscape pattern of her physical surroundings, as well as the pattern that makes up her internal landscape, that she has
DAVID SIMON CONTEMPORARY
4 Bartlett Street Bath BA1 2QZ 01225 460189 www.davidsimoncontemporary.com
become part of that landscape, so to speak. However, these are not necessarily localised and personalised environments that can be captured as in a photograph; they are landscapes of empathy, and understanding on a level that is much more intrinsic and rooted than through just physical attachment, there is an emotional level to the relationship with environment that should not be underestimated. John Hopper Inspirational Magazine, 2015
Dark Embrace 47 x 39 x 30cm
White Belt 38 x 40 x 36cm
Grey Matter 46 x 41 x 30cm 4
Feeling Blue 47 x 30 x 21cm 5
Flux 42 x 43 x 31cm 6
Hollow Form 43 x 45 x 31cm
Grazed 50 x 38 x 23cm 7
Wavering 42 x 42 x 29cm 8
Shadowlands 48 x 42 x 23cm
Reflection 62 x 39 x 23cm 9
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Vestige 44 x 40 x 23cm
Sarah Purvey 2009 -MA Ceramics, Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University 1991 -BA Ceramics, Bath College of Higher Education 1988 -BTec Ceramics, Plymouth College of Art and Design
Exhibitions 2015 2014 2013 2012
2011 Pound Pill Arts Centre, Corsham David Simon Contemorary Bath Cartshed Gallery, Shaftesbury Salisbury Arts Centre Corsham Court Gallery (BSU) Cavin-Morris Gallery New York Selected Art in Clay Hatfield House Bath Society of Artists Open, Victoria Art Gallery Black Swan Wine Street Gallery, Wiltshire Bowood House Robert Fogell Gallery, Stamford 2010 Gallery 27 Cork Street, Katharine House Gallery Rize Art Gallery, Amsterdam Selected Open Show, The Pound Arts, Corsham Flux Exhibition-Gray’s Art Gallery, London Group Show, Calne Arts Festival Rize Art Gallery, Amsterdam Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough Medici Gallery, Cork Street Bradford On Avon Arts Festival Sculpture Garden Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York Selected Central Gallery Malvern, Bertram Arts David Simon Contemporary, Bath Solo Show, Corsham Court Gallery (BSU) Denise Yapp Contemporary Art 2009 Milsom Place, Bath with Mirka Golden-Hann (BSU) Medici Gallery, London SWA Mall Gallery London MA Degree Show (BSU) Sion Hill Bath Medici Gallery, Cork Street Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York Panzer Trotman Fine Art Wine Street Gallery Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Gallery Hatfield House-Art In Clay Bath Abbey Hospitality The Russell Cotes Museum with The Arthouse Gallery New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives, May Quest Gallery Bath with Ione Parkin RWA Bircham Gallery Norfolk Autumn Show Sara Preisler Gallery Solo Show Gallery 28 Cork Street, Katharine House Gallery Threadneedle Prize Exhibition the Mall Galleries Selected Hatfield Art In Clay Hilton Fine Art Gallery, Bath Devon Guild Bovey Tracey, Members Solo Show Larkhall, Bath with Ione Parkin RWA, May
back cover: Trace 43 x 41 x 23cm
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DAVID SIMON CONTEMPORARY 4 Bartlett Street Bath BA1 2QZ Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm (Wed 2pm - 6pm) 01225 460189
Photography by John Taylor
www.davidsimoncontemporary.com