Anthony Housman, Esther Nightingale, Steve Upton
Creation Fine arts introductions
Cover painting - Steve Upton Queens Gate, Beverley Acrylic on Canvas 36 x 48 inches
Welcome to Introductions - a series that aims to introduce artists showing with Creations Fine Arts to the wider public. Creation is based in Beverley, East Yorkshire. It has regular (roughly six weekly) exhibitions of artwork but also houses ceramics, jewellery, photographs and prints .
We seek to support local artists but have work of note by national and international creators from across Europe. In addition have close links with Cuba and their art.
This volume introduces three artists of very different styles and sensibilities who live in the Humber area. Anthony Housman, Esther Nightingale and Steve Upton. You will find something about each within this volume. What draws them together for me, as a curator, and despite their differences, is their human interpretation of the world as they see it and the use of their keenly practiced skills as artists to render that for our sensibilities. I am delighted to be able to present all three through Creation
Nigel Walker Director/Curator
Anthony Housman Still Life (Egg Cup) Acrylic on canvas 30 x 40 cms
Anthony Housman Mussels Acrylic on Canvas 25 x 30 cms
Anthony Housman Study of a Ruin Acrylic on Board 25.5 x 20.5 cms
Anthony Housman Anthony Housman was born in Grimsby in 1977 and completed an MA in Painting at Chelsea College of Art, London, in 1999. He currently lives and works in Hull. Anthony makes paintings that combine representation with abstraction and are developed from a range of subject matter, including most recently, depictions of ruins, as well as still life arrangements. His activated surfaces host brushy swatches and conglomerated colour, in works that are heavily concerned with the process of mark making and form. Throughout the past fourteen years, Anthony has shown his work as part of both solo and group exhibitions.
Anthony Housman Arch I Acrylic on Canvas 52 x 41 cms
Anthony Housman Still Life (half dish) Acrylic on Canvas 25 x 30 cms
Anthony Housman Study of an Apple Acrylic on Board 18 x 25 cms
Anthony Housman Lime Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 40 cms
Anthony Housman Marching Band (Night) Graphite on paper 21 x 29.5 cms
Esther Nightingale Emerge Oil on Canvas 20.5 x 14.5 inches Esther Nightingale Suspended Oil on Canvas 26 x 16 inches
Esther Nightingale Fertile Ground Oil on Canvas 39.5 x 28 inches
Esther Nightingale The paintings I make are as much concerned with the process – the “how they happen� as with their subject matter. I experiment with the process of painting, initially working on the horizontal. I pour, splash, roller layers of paint onto the picture surface until the grounds I create suggest a direction, at which point I merge background and subject together so that the two become interwoven with each strengthening the other. In terms of subject matter, I use photography to record objects and events around me. The subjects I choose to capture are selected for their transitory nature. For example, the bubbles I record are created by the breath of a child, which are then given their own life by the weather as they expand, distort and ultimately disappear. The newborn babies, within moments make the transition from one environment into another, rapidly changing and adapting to their new world. These fleeting moments are given permanence through making the paintings, which document memories of moments in time, of life lived, events passing and life looking forward.
Esther Nightingale completed her BA (Hons) in Fine Art at De Montford and Kingston Universities in London. She has had several teaching posts and residencies, the latest being at the Octagon Centre in Hull. She has exhibited numerous times, both as part of a group and individually and has undertaken a number of commissioned portraits. She is also a member of Kingston Art Group.
Esther Nightingale Wonder Oil on canvas board 10 x 8 inches
Esther Nightingale Waking Oil on canvas board 7 x 5 inches
Esther Nightingale Come Fly with Me Oil on Canvas 39.5 x 28 inches
Esther Nightingale Bubble I Oil on Linen 8 x 6 inches
Esther Nightingale Bubble II Oil on Linen 6 x 6 inches
Steve Upton Cone. Bridlington Acrylic on Canvas 42 x 42 inches
Steve Upton Two Cherubs Acrylic on canvas 40 x 50 inches
Steve Upton …was born in Cleethorpes in 1947 and attended Grimsby and Maidstone Schools of Arts as well as attending Manchester University. He taught art in Nuneaton between 1972 and 2004 and during that time exhibited widely in the Midlands. Since moving to East Yorkshire Steve has exhibited many times in both group and solo shows and won the Elwell Landscape Painting competition sponsored by the BBC as well as winning first prize in the “Humber to the Wash” Open Exhibition at Rope Walk gallery. His work has also been purchased by the Franklin Foundation Public Collection. Steve Upton Tattooed man Acrylic on Canvas 46 x 48 inches
Steve Upton Railway Bridge, Beverley Graphite on paper 20 x 25 inches
Steve says “These paintings are a combination of work produced in Nuneaton, Warwickshire where I lived and taught for thirty two years and new work, the majority of images, made in Beverley as a response to my move to East Yorkshire in 2004 and the influences of Hull and the East Coast seaside towns. So why is this subject matter? I paint what is around me. The bus station, the people, the fairs on the local field. I like that uniquely English outlook that can be an uneasy combination of the humorous, the somewhat grotesque and the surreal and I see it perhaps no longer as a celebration bus as a record and portrait of a certain English lifestyle. As a figurative painter I look for these visually odd and edgy combinations of places, objects and people which might be stumbled across in the everyday environment of many people. Sometimes it’s the unexpected places around the corner or behind the wall and of course the surfaces layered with statements political, heartfelt, personal and rude.”
Steve Upton Driffield. Wall Acrylic on Canvas 36 x 48 inches
Steve Upton U2 Acrylic on Canvas 36 x 48 inches
Creation Fine Arts is pleased to announce exhibitions of work
by Steve Upton from Wednesday 2nd July until Sunday 3rd August 2014
& Esther Nightingale from Wednesday16th July until Sunday 25th August 2014
Work by Anthony Housman is always available and usually on show at the gallery.
Further information will be posted on our website and Facebook nearer the time.
Creation fine arts 7 North Bar Within, Beverley, East Yorkshire HU17 8AP Tel:- +441482868884 www.creationfinearts.co.uk