THE
GRANTBRADLEYmagazine
MAY2014
ISSUE #20
GROUNDED GOUND SWELL DRAWN TO LANDSCAPE
‘Wokefield Sky II’ by David C Johnson
THE
GRANTBRADLEYgallery
SHOWING MAY 2014
1 St Peter’s Court Bedminster Parade Bristol BS3 4AQ T. 0117 9637 673 W. grantbradleygallery.co.uk E. info@grantbradleygallery.co.uk
MAY EXHIBITION SHOWING 10TH UNTIL 31ST MAY 2014
GROUNDED Solo exhibition by painter David C Johnson Over the past two years, David has been exploring the landscape and seascape of England. These have been the inspiration for his colourful impressions of scenes remembered, which are completed in oils and acrylics, in his studio on Stokes Croft, Bristol. He has also continued his interest in creating images from life, where the model is set in a domestic scene.. A number of these images, using mixed media including collage, will be on display. David's etchings use several techniques from drypoint, aquatint, sugar-lift to photo-polymer. These small-scale prints in exclusively limited editions will feature boats and travellers. With his Grounded selection of images, David has produced art on a human scale that will live happily in the home and provide constant pleasure to the eye. His aim is to share the excitement and buzz of artistic creation with viewers and lovers of visual art. David has had his work selected and hung at the RWA and at small galleries in the South West. His journey in the past decade from international businessman to visual artist and creative writer has been an unusual and rewarding one.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID C JOHNSON
What initially inspired you to start working creatively and when did you begin as an artist? I began as an artist in 2000 at the age of 50. I had never studied art at school and so I had to begin from scratch. Initially I was drawn to producing art, as a means of meeting other people of interest in Bristol, but thanks to inspirational teaching at a very part-time life drawing and painting class at Bristol School of Art and Design, I soon found myself caught up in the magic of colour and composition. When you first started creating your paintings what was the initial response? Can you recall the first time you showed them to a public audience? 

I think that the first time that I a painting on show to the public, was when I had one accepted by the RWA for their Open Exhibition on 2005. I had a favourable comment about it in Venue at the time.
What is your main source of inspiration and what other artists have been influential to you and your work? My main source of inspiration at present is the land and sea-scapes of Britain. My initial inspiration was the human form in a domestic setting. It is hard for me to single out particular artists as influential to me. I look at he work of many artists and I know that often there is a sub-conscious influencing taking place. Tell us more about where you produce your paintings. Do your surroundings influence your paintings in any way? Currently, most of my work is produced in a studio space that I share with four other artists in Hamilton House, Stokes Croft, Bristol. I also participate in an informal artist grouping, which meets at our houses , where we paint and draw a life model. I find that working in a shared space with other creative people increases my creativity and productivity. What are your own personal motives for painting and what does your work mean to you? I enjoy the creative process of developing ideas for paintings and the excitement of trying to realise them.- sometimes quite successfully. I enjoy the thought of being able to share the images that I have created with a wider public and the thought that some of the paintings that I have created will be on walls in strangers' houses. What is it that you wish to achieve when you put on an exhibition? What feelings or messages to wish to evoke? I hope to achieve a visual feast for the visitor- interesting colour and compositions. I want people to enjoy the the whole exhibition as a piece and to invoke feelings of attachment to the land we live in. How would you like people to feel when they view your work? I want people to feel pleasure and to feel that they would like to share this experience with others. Tell us more about your solo exhibition here in May; what can visitors expect to see and what response do you hope to receive? The majority of images produced by me for this exhibition evoke the exciting skies and natural beauty of our coasts, estuaries, mountains and moors. Paintings on canvas and board in oils and acrylics that people can imagine living with. There will also be etchings and sketches of life and the world
BRECONS Acrylic on canvas board £220
BROADSIDE I Mixed media on board £220
BY THE BORE Oil on canvas £225
ESTUARY II Oil on canvas £395
WOKEFIELD SKY II Oil on canvas £285
MARINE I Oil on canvas board £295
GROUND SWELL Works by Bristol-based wood sculptor Chris Sherratt. Chris Sherratt has been creating timeless sculptures of animals and people in beautiful hard woods since 1989. Each work is unique, with nature's own material shining and inviting you to stroke it. Exploring his loving and at times oblique view of nature, Chris Sherratt's sculptures express the lives and choices of people and animals alike. "A dialogue develops between my ideas and the character of the individual piece of wood. The wood often comes up with surprises, unexpected patterns and even faults, all of which can influence the direction and spontaneity of the work." While mainly based in Bristol, Chris has also has a studio in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, where he is drawing inspiration from the wildness of the sea, rock formations and the bird life. Some of the works on display in this Exhibition derive from this experience, and are known as the Ground Swell Series. These works express the wildness of the seascape and rocks in abstract form. But the representation of two gannets, giving a vivid depiction of the joys of love-making sea birds seen frequently in Pembrokeshire, is included in the series because of its similarity to the non-representational works. Chris Sherratt has studied with sculptors in Inverness-shire, Buckinghamshire and Bristol. He has exhibited in Buckinghamshire, including by invitation at the Wooburn Arts Festival, by invitation at the Slimbridge Wetlands Centre, Gloucestersire, by selection in Wells, and at a number of venues in Bristol, including by selection at the Royal West of England Academy.
GROUND SWELL I Sycamore £650
PENGUIN CHICK Beech £500
SEAL Beech £600
PUFFIN LOVE Sycamore £900
GANNET LOVE Beech £650
DRAWN TO LANDSCAPE Exhibition of landscape paintings by Carolyn Lamb, Rachel Howells and Roy Perry. We are friends, colleagues and painting buddies who initially met through our work as painting conservators, most recently at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, the Tate and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea. Our shared interest in creating our own art, as well as restoring other artists' work, leads us to visit each other's homes in Bristol, Cornwall and Wales where we draw and paint outdoors together. We are attracted by the same natural landscape subjects but our work then develops in different directions. Carolyn and Rachel continue to paint directly from life while Roy develops his paintings in the studio from his initial drawings and his imagination.
CAROLYN LAMB
SPRING BLOSSOM WITH ST EDITH'S CHURCH, SEA MILLS, BRISTOL Oil on canvas £795
SPRING DOGWOOD AT PENCOED GROWERS SMALLHOLDING, MID GLAMORGAN, WALES Oil on canvas £275
HAFOD OAK TEMPERATE RAINFOREST, MAENTWROG, GWYNEDD, WALES Oil on canvas £375
ROY PERRY
WHEAL DREA #2, KENIDJACK Oil on panel £220
WELL HOUSE, MONKTON FARLEIGH Oil on panel £220
MARGAM Oil on panel £275
RACHEL HOWELLS
MONKNASH CLIFF, LOOKING TOWARDS SOUTHERNDOWN Oil on panel £290
OLD SEVERN CROSSING FROM OLDBURY POWER STATION Oil on panel £260
NEW SEVERN CROSSING FROM AUST OLD FERRY Oil on panel £260
THE
GRANTBRADLEYgallery
GBG MAY 2014 EXHIBITIONS AT THE GRANT BRADLEY GALLERY 1 St Peter’s Court Bedminster Parade Bristol BS3 4AQ T. 0117 9637 673 W. grantbradleygallery.co.uk E. info@grantbradleygallery.co.uk