COLOUR AND FORM 2017

02/10/2017 18:54

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Colour and Form is an exciting invitation by gallerytop that allows me the opportunity to curate, and exhibit alongside artists I find inspirational, all of whom present their alternative views. As the foundational building blocks of any artist, colour and form are the tools used in an attempt to make sense of, and provoke responses about, “Reality".

All the artists in this exhibition share a desire to go beyond, or confront us with, our conventional time-based assumptions of the Visible World.

They differ in their choice of focus, materials and uses of juxtaposition.

The exhibition takes us on a journey. A journey from the architectural and beautiful urban-brutalism of artists like Mandy Payne and Kerri Pratt, through to the contemplative, elemental, landscape-like, play of Val Hudson and Russell Frampton, from the structural, mathematical, formal geometry of John E Walter to the noble decay of Brian Neish's colourbleeds, from the mythic narratives implied in Anna Marrow and Nagasiddhi’s unexpected and magical combination of objects through to the sensitively crafted and tenderly devotional ceramic artefacts of Chris Taylor and Sassirika.

Colour and Form brings together these ten regional and national, artists.

In their engagement with the creative fundamentals of colour and form, they point us towards the underlying nature of timelessness and the sublime. The beauty in … what is.

Val Hudson October 2017

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Brian Neish When beginning a painting I usually devise a plan for the colour palette I'm going to explore but often I seem to end up going 'off-piste' as the piece evolves. I have no idea why I do this but I suspect it something has to do with feeling, intuition and instinct clashing with 'theory', logic and reason.

I guess I want to be taken by surprise and to be always discovering something new. Happily, the sense of form I'm after grows out of this exploration of colour - at the edges of the piece to somehow define the work as a physical object in its own right, and into its surface as the multiple layers create dips, hollows and fissures...

Colo urscap e no 21 Oil on canvas 26cm x 30cm ÂŁ375

Colo urscap e no 99 Oil on canvas 26cm x 30cm ÂŁ375

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Colo urscap e no 77

Colo urscap e no 44

Colo urscap e no 63

Oil on canvas 26cm x 30cm £375

Oil on canvas 26cm x 30cm £375

Oil on canvas 26cm x 30cm £375

‘I want to be taken by surprise and to be always discovering something new…’

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Kerri Pratt

W ell Connec te d

Output

122 cm x 122cm acrylic on board

30 cm x 30cm acrylic on board

£2650

£930

No P lac e Like H om e

Esse nc e

30 cm x 30cm acrylic on board

30 cm x 30cm acrylic on board

£930

£930

Chance to Re flec t 122 cm x 91cm acrylic on board £2450

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I am inspired by travel and encounters with new places. My paintings have reference to man-made, urban and industrial landscapes. I deconstruct the landscape through a drawing process to find new ways of ‘seeing’ and responding to the built environment.

Verging on the abstract, the spaces depicted have an ambiguity intended to intrigue the viewer offering an element of familiarity without fully revealing itself.

Strong colour and dramatic structural composition are vital components, evoking a strong sense of place.

‘…to find new ways of ‘seeing’……’

Curse and Controversy 100cm x 60cm acrylic on board £1750

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Mandy Payne

‘…colour and splashes of brightness can be found even in stained, spalled concrete…’

Ev erything of value has be en r em ov ed III

Tapr oom

22.5cm x 17.5cm spray and oil paint and marker

21cm x 20cm mixed media on board

pen on concrete

£500

£1000

I am a painter and printmaker based in Sheffield. For the past 5 years I have been exploring Park Hill the Grade II* listed Brutalist council estate, investigating the issues of gentrification and the transience of the urban landscape. For this body of work I have tried to use materials that have a physical connection with the estate itself, namely concrete, aerosol spray paint (referencing the graffiti) and other building materials. My subject matter could be thought by many to be quite bleak, however, I love colour and splashes of brightness can be found even in stained, spalled concrete if you look hard enough, as I hope this work reveals.

Cor nere d II 21cm x 21cm mixed media on board

£500

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Threshold I 61cm x 52cm mixed media on board £1200

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Nagasiddhi

On Balance

G rav ity a nd Gr ace

120cm x 25cm x 60cm wood and metal

87cm x 62cm x 20cm wood and metal

£1200

£595

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My father would tell a tale of when he was a child. His family were very poor and he had few toys. As a treat, once in a while, his father would turn the kitchen table upside down, tie a broom to one of the legs and hang a sheet on it as a sail. My father and his siblings would then climb in to this vessel and sail away to distant lands.

Tem ple 80cm x 24cm x 24m wood and metal £800

So, a table can be a table, and also a boat, and a timeless image of freedom and adventure. I hope to recreate in my artwork this way of being in the world where the mundane and the mythic can co-exist without contradiction. This could be called relating to the world with “Soul”.

With a background in theatre, my art work helps me reimagine and re-image myself and re-enchant my relationship to the world. I hope to inspire others to do the same.

‘…where the mundane and the mythic can co-exist without contradiction…’

W ell 48cm x 24cm x 24cm mixed media £595

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John E Walter

M anifo ld 00 1 1

M anifo ld 00 0 5

M anifo ld 00 0 7

40cm x 40cm acrylic on acrylic sheet £950

40cm x 40cm acrylic on acrylic sheet £950

40cm x 40cm acrylic on acrylic sheet £950

Colour - By the careful and precise layering of cyan, magenta and yellow paint, I can approximate the natural process of light which creates the colours, tones, tints and shades we see around us.

Form - Some of my paintings result from an aleatory process using dice etc. This generates a random set of possible outcomes. Nature behaves in a similar way. For example - a type of leaf is standard to a species, but also has individuality.

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M anifo ld 00 0 9 40cm x 40cm acrylic on acrylic sheet £950

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Chris Taylor I take inspiration from the rich history within the ceramic field, combining materials, techniques and processes not commonly seen together to create objects that are rich with colour, texture and material quality.

Whilst the vessel forms appear commonplace, the surface treatment conflicts with this notion of familiarity.

The surface decoration is applied in interesting and unusual ways. Lustre will appear painterly and free. Pattern will be disrupted by an area of loosely applied colour or worn away to reveal the clay underneath. Glaze is intentionally applied inconsistently to reveal the matt surface below and cracking is encouraged as decorative interest.

For me there is a strong relationship between the process of making and the variety of ways this leaves its mark.

Through practical investigations contemporary objects are created using both new and traditional techniques and processes. In this way visual interest is forged that suggests a historical narrative.

Oval Platte r with scratched red Indian print 41cm x 34cm ÂŁ390

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M edium Vase with sc ratc hed p lum pr int

Sm all Bottle with lustre d ind ian p rint

height 28cm £270

height 25cm £230

Gre en jug with re d flo wers Height 29cm £290 Sm all re d b ellied v ase height 16cm £220

‘…the surface treatment conflicts with this notion of familiarity...’’ www.gallerytop.co.uk

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Anna Marrow

M ountain Swim limited edition silk screen print £175 Passio n City limited edition silk screen print £225 M r B ue Sk y limited edition silk screen print £195 M r Tre a t limited edition silk screen print £225 Follo w the Ye llow Brick R oad limited edition silk screen print £175

‘…drawing is more important than ever in our fast paced digital age……’

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1 2

I love architectural forms, particularly Victorian and contemporary brutalist buildings. A combination of the two seems to echo most of the places I have lived, Liverpool, London and Bristol. My main concerns are detail, specific drawing, surprising colour, composition, and believable story telling. I love the craft of drawing and think it is more important than ever in our fast paced digital age.

I enjoy the innocence and romance of old musicals and like to draw the characters from them. Birds also feature in my work and I am drawn to them because of their contrasting features of soft feathers, sharp beaks, and their fascinating forms. More recently I have been looking at people who are attempting to fly like divers.

Taxi limited edition silk screen print ÂŁ85

M idnight in the Me tr op olis limited edition silk screen print ÂŁ175

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Russell Frampton

R ounding H engistbury

Lone Sail o ff Fleet

43cm x 49cm oil on board £1600

61cm x 90cm oil on board £2800 Nathansle od 27cm x 27cm oil on board £660 Sole nt Edg e 40cm x 40cm oil on board £1200 Gourthem er s P lac e 27cm x27cm oil on board £660

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‘…through which form manifests…’

R osc anv el 32cm x 50cm oil and mixed media on board £1400

As an artist I have had an intimate relationship with colour for over 35 years, ranging from the subtlety and myriad soft potentiality of the earth tones, to the garish ‘pop’ inflected, super saturation of the primaries.

Colour is the emotional keel upon which a painting can be laid down. It is an articulate partner guiding the overlay and the juxtaposition, creating a charged, transperceptual grounding which when allied to the gesture, the mark, and the line and mediated through a highly personalised autographic and aesthetic understanding, is the vehicle through which form manifests itself.

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Sassirika Being born in England of Chinese parents and an ex-dancer, I find that I am fascinated by the symbolism and power of colour combined with fluidity of three dimensional form.

This is especially apparent in 'Fluid Selves'. I was inspired by the Imperial Yellow ceramics of the Chinese Qing Dynasty. Such vessels were reserved solely for the use of the monarchy. In 'Fluid Selves' it became a symbol of the beauty and visibility of minority.

When placed sparsely amongst a sea of other white vessels, the yellow ones stand out. It is also an expression of how it feels to be a member of an ethnic minority, in some ways different but principally the same.

Fluid Se lve s ÂŁ25-ÂŁ70

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For tune II £195

Contract

£290

For tune I £220

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Val Hudson My paintings engage with the insubstantial, transient nature of existence as expressed through colour and form, the elements, open spaces and the play of light. Abstract and elemental in form, I endeavour to make that which is invisible, visible and in doing so I invite us to jettison our preconceptions and bring into play, imagination.

I layer oil and wax on canvas then scrape-back to create pieces that are contemplative, meditative and mysterious. They are textural, intimate, paradoxical and poetic, engaging with the potential of emptiness and silence.

I have made these paintings for this exhibition, with the intention of bringing some intrigue as to what these colours and forms might evoke in the viewer.

‘engaging with the potential of

Colo ur and Form I 70cm x 70cm oil and wax on canvas, £1800

emptiness and silence…..’ www.gallerytop.co.uk

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‘…the aim is not to stimulate the mind, but to empty it of its preconceptions of fixed forms’ Colo ur and Form II 100cm x 70cm oil and wax on canvas £2200

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Colour and Form curated by Val Hudson Val Hudson is a painter who produces large abstract canvases concerned with emotional responses to colour. Val has been involved with gallerytop for several years, either exhibiting her paintings or working to present and promote other artists.

Her own approach to painting is informed and shaped by her life experience. Her work is not so much about ways of seeing as ways of experiencing. Her work adheres to fundamental principles which she has consciously embedded in her life and which emerge in her painting. Her technique involves layering oil and wax on canvas then abrading the surface to reveal underlying layers creating pieces that are contemplative, meditative and mysterious: which conceal and reveal – like the stillness between two waves. Her paintings appear evocative rather than descriptive, enigmatic rather than accountable.

It’s difficult to pin them down, because in the world they propose, nothing is fixed and the aim is not to stimulate the mind, but to empty it of its preconceptions of fixed forms Against these concepts, Val Hudson has chosen nine other artists whose work unfolds to reveal inspirational ‌.otherness

Gallerytop, Chatsworth Road, Rowsley, Matlock, DE4 2EH 01629 735580 info@gallerytop.co.uk

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