The Discerner Art Publication - October 2018

THE

DISCERNER

Discerning The World of Arts

“Late Summer Hues” by Melanie Wright

Abstract | Cubism | Expressionism | Figurative | Fine Art | Modern

October 2018

Editor’s Letter

Dear Readers, I hope that you are all well, and excited about the build-up to Christmas!

I am so pleased to be working with such wonderful artists once again and I would like to draw your attention to the phenomenal equine and landscape artist Melanie Wright.

She is doing the cover this month and I could not think of a more appropriate work to represent the autumn season.

You will also read that Melanie was comissioned to paint the 2017 badminton horse trials winner, Nereo, ridden by Andrew Nicholson, last Summer. The result is simply superb! Congratulations Melanie!

I have been told that its owner Mrs Libby Sellar is delighted too!

You now know that Melanie loves working on commission so you are welcome to contact her directly. She is an extremely talented, serious and precise artist with whom it is a pleasure to work.

Of course, the other artists shown in our October issue are all amazingly talented and I hope that you will enjoy their works as much as I do!

Kindest regards Celine Gaurier-Joubert

Contact & advertising enquiries: E: celine@thediscerner.com W: www.thediscerner.com T: 0044 20 7491 9925

Every effort has been made to ensure the content is accurate.

The Discerner Ltd does not endorse any of the advertisements in the magazine unless otherwise stated. No part of the magazine may be reproduced without permission of The Discerner Ltd. We reserve the right to refuse advertisement or editorial not suitable to the publication.

Contents

Melanie Wright Barbara Krupp Caia Matheson David Henty Emma Davis John Lendis Michael Batey Michelle Hold Sarah Jane Brown Stephen Schubert Sue Malkin Tim Short

Melanie Wright Melanie lives in the Cotswolds, where her deep affinity with horses and the landscape inform and inspire her paintings. She is well known for her equestrian sporting images in the fields of Racing, Dressage and Polo. Melanie trained as a portrait painter at Heatherleys School of Fine Art in London and carries both her formal portrait painting skills and her endless fascination with depicting movement, spirit and the atmosphere of place, into her artwork.

Working in oils, watercolour and drawn media, Melanie’s paintings have been exhibited in London and Oxfordshire and feature in private collections in the USA, Europe and Scandinavia.

For as long as I can remember I have been making art, in the form of drawing and painting. I was born into a family in North Yorkshire, that shared a passion for the countryside, horses and art. Both my grandmothers were art school trained practicing artists.

My paternal Grandmother was a gifted watercolour painter, notably of winter landscapes, and my maternal Grandmother was for a time, an illustrator, in London. My Grandfathers were keen riders, and racing enthusiasts, with hunting and polo (in Burma and India) playing a key part in their lives. This background has been an influence on my own creative path, as has the dynamic of enjoying life outdoors, equestrian pursuits and handling horses, balanced with reflective, concentrated periods of study and painting from nature, learning to look and to explore the beauty of the landscape.

Following those formative early years, I went to Art School in London. Training firstly as a textile designer and then later as a Fine Art portrait and life painter at Heatherleys School of Art, followed by a History of Art Course at Christies Education. I was particularly drawn to and inspired by artists from the Modern British Period, such as Ivon Hitchens, Paul Nash, John Skeaping and Alfred Munnings. For a number of years I ran a portrait studio and teaching practice in London. After moving away from the city, to North Oxfordshire, in 2008, I reconnected in some ways, through my painting to those early influences and have focused on equestrian painting and landscape subjects ever since. The Cotswolds provide an endlessly rich source of inspiration, offering such a fantastic variety of equestrian sports, and of course the stunning landscapes.

Working in oils, watercolour and drawn media (occasionally mixed media), my approach is unashamedly old school. I like to work directly from the subject, wherever and whenever possible, filling sketchbooks with observations, studies and ideas. This approach proved particularly rewarding when ‘Artist in Residence’ at specific locations, such as a racing stables, racetrack, or national park. I relish the opportunity to build a connection over a period of time with both ‘place’ and ‘people’, observing the day to day activities and variety of subject matter, that residencies present. Occasionally, alongside painting for exhibitions, I work to private commission, notably for equine portraiture. My two main category subjects, while being on the face of it, rather different, work both independently and combined in a painting. Much of my landscape painting is carried out spontaneously, on the spot, on a small and intimate scale, through multiple studies. Larger landscape pieces are developed further later on in the studio, away from the subject, with a focus on memory and surface interest. Both ‘equestrian’ and ‘landscape’ provide me with the inner connection and outer movement I am searching for. My aim is to capture the fleeting moment, be it dramatic or meditative in nature. This could be the charge of horses across a polo ground, or around a racetrack, or the shadows of overhead clouds scudding across a valley bringing a rapid change of light and atmosphere. I look for the palpable energy and my own emotional response. And ultimately, this is what I feel compelled to engage with, to continually explore and to create through my art.

www.melaniewrightartist.co.uk

“Nereo” Watercolour multiple image in one painting 47cm x 55cm unframed Painted to private commission. (Melanie’s Equine portrait commission fees start at £1200)

THE NEREO COMMISSION STORY A COMMISSION TO PAINT THE 2017 BADMINTON HORSE TRIALS WINNER, NEREO, RIDDEN BY ANDREW NICHOLSON Last summer, i was delighted to be introduced to Deborah Sellar - known as Libby, owner of the international event horse, Nereo, at the private viewing of an exhibition in London, organised by The Discerner.

Libby Sellar, from New Zealand, expressed an interest in commissioning a portrait of her Event horse, Nereo, in honour of his long career and outstanding scope of talent and achievement. Having won many international championships, ridden by the New Zealand rider, Andrew Nicholson, their win at Badminton Horse Trials last year, was particularly special, as Nereo was 17 years old at the time.

Libby visited my studio in Oxfordshire, to see examples of my equestrian portraiture, showing the wide range of drawn and painted medium i employ, and discuss ideas. She particularly liked the informal but dynamic style of my watercolour paintings, and so we started from there. She had brought along a range of Course photography, but as always, it is also enormously important for me to actually meet and spend time with the horse. So I went to meet Nereo at Andrew Nicholson’s yard in Wiltshire, to observe, take photographs and make rough sketches. Afterwards, back in the studio, I sketched out some compositional , actual size layouts in pencil, and sent these to Libby for her approval.

The final choice was for a large scale watercolour, with multiple images, to include a vignette of Nereo’s head, against a suggested landscape, with two smaller scale vignettes to the right, portraying him in dressage and cross country action. Libby’s brief was for me to capture his personality, and also his quirky markings (white spots and patches on his face and hindquarters), and an overall feeling of light and movement within the painting. I enjoyed meeting Nereo enormously and having the opportunity to study this remarkable horse from life. And when Andrew led him out for me initially, i have to say the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.

Utter Respect!. The Nicholsons were hospitable and accommodating, with Lily, their daughter patiently leading Nereo out repeatedly for me to observe him at close quarters.

The portrait was completed early this year, just before Nereo was retired from international competing. Libby tells me that at his retirement announcement, Andrew led Nereo out at Badminton Horse trials, to a standing ovation and cheers, from the crowds, a fitting tribute, that Nereo very much enjoyed!. It was an absolute pleasure, indeed an honour, for me to paint this remarkable horse.

“Towards The Malvern Hills” Watercolour 10cm x 26cm image size unframed 32.5 x 47cm framed. (with white mount and pale oak frame)

“Early Spring Light” Watercolour 10cm x 26cm image size unframed 32.5 x 47cm framed. (with white mount and pale oak frame)

www.melaniewrightartist.co.uk

“Light across the Vale” Watercolour 10cm x 26cm image size unframed 32.5 x 47cm framed. (with white mount and pale oak frame)

“Tawny Edge” Watercolour 10cm x 26cm image size unframed 32.5 x 47cm framed. (with white mount and pale oak frame)

This group of small, intimately scaled watercolour paintings are selected from a constantly ongoing and evolving dynamic of painting en plein air, directly from the subject. Usually in a series. All are painted in and around the Cotswolds, where i live. As a child i used to go out painting with my grandmother, a Landscape artist, in North Yorkshire. She loved to paint the landscape in winter and also with snow, so we used to find a good spot and then happily paint from the car. That wonderful idea of being outside in a mobile studio of sorts, looking out into the landscape, working rapidly to catch the shifting light and weather conditions, in a protected bubble of concentration, came back to me when i moved to Oxfordshire some years ago. I always carry watercolour painting equipment in my car and am therefore able to seize the moment, stop to contemplate and catch the essence, the lie of the land, the light and the atmosphere. It has become a form of creative meditation.

These images are not particularly topographically representational, i am more attracted to expressing in paint, the overall sweep of the land and sky, letting go of extraneous detail , with my focus on true to subject colour subtleties and tone.

Barbara Krupp I was born in Elyria, Ohio, a small town in northeast Ohio. After graduating from high school I trained as an x-ray technician. As a self-taught artist, I place the beginning of my profession career in 1976, when I both gained my first gallery representation in Rockport, MA. and had a painting accepted into the permanent collection of the Massilion (Ohio) Art Museum. Through the venues in which I chose to exhibit, my paintings to date found their way into dozens of private and public collections throughout the world. As I eventually broadened my personal outlook through travel, my artistic horizon widened, as well. I have studied with many well known artists including Graham Nickson, a painter educated at the Royal College of Art in London.

A recipient of the Prix de Rome and Harkness Fellowship at Yale University, Nickson is celebrated for his monumental canvases with figural abstractions. Since then my large paintings in acrylic on canvas have has become more minimal and my color more sensuous.

My current work is a culmination of all I have learned to date, after decades of commitment to the practice of my art. For me they are also an exciting new beginning in my search for a totally abstract form of expression.

I just start working with colors because I’m really a colorist. I know what goes with what, I have my feelings and I just want to get everything flowing, and the color working great. I trained to be an x-ray technician. From that time on, as T.S. Eliot wrote in his “Whispers of Immortality,” I have seen “the skull beneath the skin.” The structure of the painting is very important to me, and in my most recent series I have, in a manner of speaking, allowed the bones of the painting—both compositionally and metaphorically, become the painting’s’ subject matter. Georgia O’Keeffe, whose early 1940s series of pelvic bones enclosed spaces that later in the decade became forms themselves, I found the areas of interest in my own landscape and floral abstractions to be the atmospheric spaces between forms. I came to realize that the significance in my paintings was not in the forms, but in the spaces in between them.

In my “Abstract Stories” series, those atmospheric spaces became increasing bounded by spontaneously drawn shapes. Painted in shades of ochre-tinted white –the color of bone-- the enclosed spaces began to take on shapes that suggested something as intimate and normally hidden as bone; organic shapes that suggest body parts unveiled here and there as though to tease a lover. T.S. Eliot ends his poem with, ”Our lot crawls between dry bones to keep our metaphysics warm.” I explore the interface between passion and the intellect, pulsing tissue and desiccated bone. Our lot may be to crawl through our mortal span but, like the poet, we also sing.

www.barbarakrupp.com

IG barbarakrupp

“The Grey in Between” Acrylic 76.2cm x 76.2cm

“Wicked Wild Flowers” Acrylic 61cm x 61cm

“Ladybug Dance” Acrylic 76.2cm x 101.6cm

Caia Matheson Caia Matheson is an award-winning contemporary oil painter based in Brighton, UK. She was born in Johannesburg and educated in Tokyo and London. Matheson has exhibited widely in the UK, and has been shortlisted for numerous awards, including winning Brighton Artist of the Year in 2004. Matheson painted Europe’s first Rainbow Pedestrian Crossing Brighton in 2014, and in 2013 her work was selected by author Neil Gaiman for the book A Calendar of Tales.

Matheson is inspired by wabi sabi, or the beauty of imperfection.

For Matheson, painting is a very physical process. She loves to mix paint mediums and experiment with the effects. This, for her, can be the most exciting part of the creative process. Her mediums are oils – tubes of oil paint, oil bars, oil pastels and mixtures of oil paints and dyes. She enjoys the texture consistency and smell of them. Matheson paints with her hands and washing-up sponges onto canvases laid flat on the floor, building and scratching off layers of oil paint to create a world within worlds.

The layers are designed in a way to expose different subjects of the composition. These subjects are buried in the dark and light spaces and come out and disappear as the light changes presenting different aspects depending on shifting light conditions and mood.

My work is about words and verse from all sources such as radio plays audio books stories song lyrics and poetry. I get such great pictures from words and translate them into my work as a visual narrative.

I begin painting with a specific colour that I have in my mind’s eye. I then introduce other colours and begin to build layers on the canvas. These layers are then scratched off and layered over again like a palimpsest literally meaning ‘scraped clean and used again’. I love the idea of previous markings that are not visible but are still an inherent part of the composition.

I consider each successive layer a generation to populate or depopulate the canvas as needed and create my own world as I go.

I like to create a world within worlds.

As a kid I used to be fascinated by the Lowly worm in the Richard Scarry books. I loved scouring each page to seek out that worm and when I found it I would feel most content like I had discovered a piece of secret truth that would uncover all the answers to my questions about the universe. There are some Lowly worms in my abstracts albeit in symbolic form.

www.caiamatheson.com

IG caiamathesonart

“Head In Heaven and Feet on Earth” Oil and dyes on hand stretched canvas H 100cm x W 100cm x D 3cm

“We humans are destined to live with our feet on the earth and our heads in the heavens, and we can never be at peace because we are pulled both ways.”

Kent Nerburn

David Henty With more than twenty-five years experience replicating great works of art, David Henty is nowconsidered the world’s best art forger/copyist. He has considerable expertise in convincing the viewer and art experts, having mastered the techniques and idiosyncrasies of some of the most iconic artists, from Michelangelo and Caravaggio through to Pablo Picasso. Each piece involves rigorous preparation through David’s immersive research process, studying the original painting, developing an understanding of how the artist worked, and sourcing materials true to the period.

David Henty’s history as a copyist/art forger starts, appropriately enough, with a conviction for forgery, more than twenty-five years ago. It was while serving the resulting prison sentence that David’s passion for art was rekindled. Quickly seduced by the technicality of copying, he has honed his craft to perfection, establishing a thriving legitimate business.

David explains that his is a very different discipline to producing the original artwork, and that copying is notoriously difficult.

Mastering an artist’s unique style, however, is a challenge he embraces. It is only once he’s developed an affinity with the artist, that he’s connected with him or her that he will attempt to emulate their style. This means that David’s preparation for a painting begins even before his brush touches the canvas!

Prior to starting work on a piece, David will delve into the artist’s life and thoughts in order to get beneath the skin of that person.

He derives huge satisfaction from deconstructing a work and analysing how to lay down each stroke, as well as mixing the perfect palette. There is the upmost importance of copy artists in the art world, to produce works of the greatest artists that have every lived.

Once this art form has gone it will be lost forever.

David Henty produces his highly collectable paintings for enthusiasts and private collections around the globe. Each original piece is presented in its own bespoke, handmade frame and signed on the reverse by David to certify authenticity.

A star in his own right, David’s copies have come to the attention of high profile media channels such as The Sunday Telegraph, the BBC, and Radio 4, who’ve all run articles on him, as well as an appearance on the Sky Art channel, Sky News and many more. David also speaks on his specialised field of art forgery.

There is also a book in process and a film about David’s life. Hereford Films is in the early stages of producing the film based on the life and crimes of David Henty. The working title is “Picasso Before Breakfast”.

The script is being written by the one and only Nick Moran, the actor and producer, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows and The Musketeers to name but a few!

“Arguably the worlds most celebrated copyist” - Stratford words and music festival.

Pablo Picasso: Good artists copy, great artists steal.

DAVID HENTY does both!

www.davidhentyart.co.uk

IG davidhentyartforger

“Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin’s Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ” Oil on canvas Bespoke solid wood frame size 73.5cm x 63.5cm Canvas size 61cm x 51cm

Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ is in fact a triple portrait, in which the artist reveals different facets of his personality.

Although most self-taught, Gauguin had some lessons from the Impressionist – Camille Pissarro. Pissarro introduced Gauguin to the other Impressionist and he became a member of the Impressionist movement. In 1888 he accepted an invite from Van Gogh to live and work with him in Arles in the south of France this is where Gauguin’s ‘Self-Portrait’ was painted in1889.

“Art is either plagiarism or revolution” Paul Gauguin

Emma Davis Emma Davis lives and works in London. She holds an MA degree in Literature and in Fine Art from studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and the University of York. This year, she returned to India and Antibes as Artist in Residence. She was recently selected for the London Creative Network, the London Intensive (run by the Slade School of Fine Art and Camden Arts Centre), and was shortlisted the ArtSlant International Prize, National Art Prize and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

Emma Davis is a writer and a visual artist. Led into abstraction, she is greatly influenced by Howard Hodgkin, as well as by Japanese block prints and Chinese pottery. She works across a variety of media, including oils, watercolour, etchings, monoprints and pencil on paper, but all of her work really relates to drawing, an activity she finds somehow intimate. An avid traveller herself, she draws a lot on public transport, or at galleries and concerts, where people are lost in their own thoughts, their private worlds on public display, absorbed and unselfconscious. Etching makes the drawings easier to read, more permanent, more finished. Davis often adds text to her works, making reference to what is in her head, what an image suggests to her, or what sensation is conjured. The act of drawing slows her down, allowing her to access her thoughts more directly. Similarly, her watercolours are mainly about the effect and meaning of line – an abstract quality but one that refers back to pictographic languages and calligraphy. Her palettes are intense, reflecting heat, a jangle of colours reacting to one another. – Anna McNay.

www.emmadavisartist.com

IG emmadavisartist

“Film Drawing I” Pencil on paper 19cm x 19cm

“Film Drawing II” Pencil on paper 19cm x 19cm

“Film Drawing III” Pencil on paper 19cm x 19cm

“Film Drawing IV” Pencil on paper 19cm x 19cm

Two of these film drawings will be shown at The Discerning Eye show from 15-25 November at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1 https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/ing-discerning-eye

John Lendis John Lendis BA (hons) MA John Lendis is an internationally renowned painter with a very distinctive and enigmatic style. He has travelled restlessly, living in Afghanistan before the Russian war, living and working in Bali amongst many other travels, all of which have had a huge influence on the work.

John grew up in Nottingham,England and completed a diploma in textile design at the Nottingham College of Art and Design,later moving to Tasmania in the early 1980’s where he undertook a BFA(Hons) and a Master of fine art in Painting at the University of Tasmania’s School of Art. John returned to England in 2009 and is currently living and working from the studio in the Cotswolds. With many exhibitions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US, He continues to exhibit internationally and has work in public and private collections.

Looking at the landscape as painter, I find the world is bewildering; A labyrinthine maze of complex pattern, destroying and remaking itself at irregular intervals – entirely unconcerned with appearances.

These destroyings and remakings seem bound together with uncountable infinitesimally small points of stillness and silence – the exact moments when an entity ceases to grow and begins the inevitable process of decay, the instant an animal pauses between stillness and flight.

There is only an illuminated carpet page of bewildering complexity, endlessly moving between abstraction and realism, between imagination and the world.

There is no horizon, no distance, no narrative, no point of orientation.

I no longer see myself or the world as objects of Knowledge.

www.johnlendis.com

IG #johnlendis

“The Studio” Oil on canvas 100cm x 120cm

“One Star shining” Oil on canvas 132cm x 153 cm

Interior of a studio with model

From the series of works around Jane Franklins search for her husband

“Horizon” Oil on canvas 132cm x 153cm

“Forbidden Fire” Oil and gold leaf on canvas 120cm x 150cm

From the series of work -‘Islands / epiphanies’

From the series of work -‘Islands / epiphanies’

Michael Batey I am a self taught Cumbrian born artist based in Dumfriesshire, Scotland where I have lived for the past thirty years gaining my main inspiration from the elements.

Having had many successful exhibitions, my work is now widely collected internationally.

Very much inspired by the the Scottish Colourists and Turner which suits my style. Having worked outdoors all my life seeing the light and power of the elements.

I am very lucky to have a friend who owns a boat moored in Ardfern, Scotland, and have had two sailing trips along the Western Isles which gave me a lot of inspiration for my most recent works. Sketching the landscapes around me not to copy but to feel the power of the Highlands. It cannot be explained how much power it has unless you have experienced it from the sea itself. Back in my studio I aim to portray this in my paintings and take the viewer on a trip of light.

Michael having a cat nap between sketching on the trip

www.michaelbatey.com

IG batey3490

“Rhum” Oil on linen 100cm x 65cm View from Atlantic

“The Peaks” Oil on linen 100cm x 65cm Finding Highland light on sailing trip

Michelle Hold Michelle Hold is a German-born artist based in Italy who paints vibrant abstract works inspired by emotion and energy. Her canvases are loud and layered, enticing the viewer to look further and further into their depths. We just love the expressive force of Michelle’s canvases, and we’d recommend them for any interior in need of some punch.

The artist, who grew up in Austria, had begun to study architecture when she fell into modelling. On her travels, she took various art and textile design classes. She then worked as a textile designer in Milan before later throwing herself full time into painting.

Michelle has held solo exhibitions throughout Italy and in London, and she has participated in international art fairs in Miami, Athens, Milan and Berlin. Her works have featured in group exhibitions across the globe.

She has been shortlisted for the RiseArt Prize in 2018.

Art is my life and passion.

My work is based on capturing the essence of feelings, emotions and the invisible, eternal energy that pervades in the universe, focusing on beauty and it’s scarcity in current time.

I am inspired by nature and new science that meets spirituality.

Creating from a place of no time , no space no body in my studio in Italy.

Like an architect I love to construct the images with multiple layering, but at the same time leaving space for surprise, for something unexpected to happen, where my dance like gestures encounter the vibrations of color.

Color is vital to convey my message of harmony and wellbeing and I am interested in the perception of space and emotion through the equilibrated use of color, which I have trained while working in textile design.

Currently I am working on paintings for my solo exhibition for 2018 ‘Color is calling’ where I will elaborate the deeper, silent message color brings and the healing influence it has on us. Color isn’t just color, specially in my paintings it shows a state of mind, feelings and emotions.

I aim to offer the spectator a view into special moments of time where all is possible and like my creations to enchant, add to wellbeing and open the mind.

These painting are part of my garden cycle. The colors, shapes and depths in nature are always an inspiration. I love to observe my garden in the different seasons, it’s a wild garden of flower explosions in spring and summer.

In Michelle’s paintings color is a living and pulsating entity that offers an agreement between who is painting and who is looking at the canvas, resulting in a profound connection between the inner world of who is looking and the desire of the artist to convey, all searching between the infinite relationship that is inside everybody.

www.michellehold.com

www.twitter.com/holdm4

“Allow it happening” Acrylics, pigments on canvas 50cm x 50cm

Non resistance to the NOW brings space and freedom of mind.

I am currently working on paintings for my solo exhibition for 2018 ‘Color is calling’ where I will elaborate the deeper, silent message color brings and the healing influence it has on us. Color isn’t just color, specially in my paintings it shows a state of mind, feelings and emotions.

This vibrant painting is made with high quality pigments and acrylics on professionally stretched canvas, protected by a layer of top quality light resistant varnish (Lascaux ), signed on the back, ready to hang, needs no framing and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Sarah Jane Brown Sarah Jane Brown lives on the rugged Welsh coast, where her environment, and previous maritime career, have instilled a deep affinity with the sea. She studied ‘Fine Art - Painting’ at the West Wales School of the Arts, graduating with a first class honours degree.

Brown’s career as a full time professional artist has steadily gained momentum and recognition and her work now attracts international collectors. She has exhibited widely in the UK, has had many successful solo shows. The artist also recently exhibited with the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries in London and The Royal Cambrian Academy in North Wales.

Sarah combines her knowledge of ‘old master’ techniques with contemporary working practice. Conceptually her paintings are an outpouring of personal feeling and a strong sense of place; using the landscape metaphorically to describe thoughts and emotions.

“Our surroundings form a part of us, they shape our perception and colour our thoughts and ideals. For me they are a vehicle to describe more internal aspects of our physical, emotional and spiritual selves. There is something about being immersed in the vastness of the landscape that gives clarity and focus to the space within. My approach to landscape is therefore introspective and intimate.

I enjoy the versatility of oil paint, and find it the best medium to convey the varied sensations of being in the landscape; sometimes calm, restorative, or spiritually uplifting and at other times wild, dynamic, rejuvenating and mentally energising. Oil paint is also equally responsive to my internal thoughts and feelings.

I walk the coast path or the beach near my home in Pembrokeshire and absorb; meditative space and light, magical junctures of land, sea and sky, endlessly changing colours, reflections and atmospheric conditions. I know it so well, after years of collecting observations it is ingrained. I photograph, make sketches and painted studies to get the landscape ‘under my skin’.

In the studio these observations are transformed, becoming more expressive as I engage with the physicality of painting, sometimes veering towards abstraction. My style is expressive and combines a variety of methods; staining, glazing and blending in many layers, gradually building up thickness and texture. Paint is applied with brushes, knives, rags and sometimes fingers. It is painted, scraped, flicked, spattered and poured on, and sometimes off again, until the finished painting emerges.

Titles are deliberately ambiguous. They emerge from phrases that cross my mind whilst I am in the studio or out in the landscape, sometimes they are excerpts from poetry, or are often just snippets of my own windswept thoughts.”

www.sjbart.co.uk

IG artsistsjb

“Leave me the darkness and the stillness” Mixed media on Canvas 168cm x 184cm This very large canvas is built up of thin staining and glazing layers together with thick impasto to create a semi abstract, highly atmospheric and evocative landscape. The title is taken from a poem by the 20th century American poet Sarah Teasdale which reflects the sentiment of the painting.

“I Have Loved Hours at Sea” I have loved hours at sea, gray cities, The fragile secret of a flower, Music, the making of a poem That gave me heaven for an hour; First stars above a snowy hill, Voices of people kindly and wise, And the great look of love, long hidden, Found at last in meeting eyes.

I have loved much and been loved deeply Oh when my spirit’s fire burns low, Leave me the darkness and the stillness, I shall be tired and glad to go.

Sarah Teasdale

Stephen Schubert LA-based contemporary, abstract artist, Stephen Schubert, is once again coming to the Vail valley with exciting work to show at the all new contemporary 166 Gallery. “I have some amazing, works that explores my reaction to the subtle and massive transitions in life”. Exposed to Japanese garden design at a young age, Stephen has incorporated many of the principals of that culture in his utilization of balance, scale and color.

“I was always struck by the phrase,” Kohani Shitagau,” which means,” follow the request.” It is the basis for determining how to begin the design process when creating a garden. I thought, what a great way to create and in fact, live a life.”

Have you ever sat around a table of great, simple food and wine and felt transported? Or gotten lost in a soft focus dream? This is what Stephen likes to explore in his work; finding out where we find ourselves. His process is mostly unconscious.

Captivated by themes of transitions and transformations, his abstracts are created on elevated birch panels with a technique that includes placing up to 15 layers of paint. His approach includes dragging a spackle knife, board or other found object over the wood surface, then applying a topcoat of resin. But it doesn’t end there; Stephen then begins the process all over again. The result of this labor intensive process? A phenomenal vibrancy, great depth of color and surprising imagery.

Stephen has a love of foreign cinema. He’s been fortunate to attend film festivals around the world, which provide him with stimulation and inspiration from watching different perspectives on screen as well as from the cities and towns in which the festivals take place.

No stranger to television and film sets, his work was prominently featured in the Steve Carrell film, “Dinner for Schmucks.” Prior to becoming an artist, Stephen began his career acting and was the spokesman for Lincoln Mercury, Macy’s and guest anchored on the E! Channel. He was also seen on a classic Seinfeld episode.

Specializing in custom work, Stephen loves collaborating with designers and on projects for high-end residential, hospitality and health care design.

www.schubertmodern.com

“A Shift in Meaning” Acrylic on birch with a resin topcoat 121.92 cm x 121.92 cm

“Blue Shower” Acrylic on birch with a resin topcoat 91.44 cm x 91.44 cm

“Moonwashed” Acrylic on birch with resin topcoat 121.92 cm x 203.2 cm

Sue Malkin Sue Malkin studied at Leeds University ( BA Hons Fine Art), developing a strong interest in figurative art. Following a career in art education in the UK, a move to Grenoble, in the spectacular landscape of the Rhone-Alpes region of France, gave her exhibiting opportunities, for which she gained many awards, including Grand Prix, and Medailles d’Or. After nine years spent in France, she returned to the UK to live in the equally stunning countryside of Northumberland, and has exhibited almost continuously in solo, shared and group shows in public and private galleries. Her work in the studio and on location has also been featured on regional and national TV, and is collected widely.

A long-standing interest in the figure and life-drawing underpins my approach. Observation drawing of the figure is a demanding and rigorous discipline for an artist, and this eye-training is very valuable whether I am painting a large canvas or a swiftly executed sketch with a few lines. Sketchbooks are essential for my knowledge of my subject-matter, and for giving me a reference library of starting points for developing ideas. My camera goes with me as well, but the quality of looking required for a drawing, however rapid, is very different from looking through a viewfinder. These initial sketches sometimes develop into larger works on paper, with mixed drawing media while others evolve into paintings. I have three large studio easels, and usually all three are occupied by canvases in various stages of progress. I use oil paints on canvas, with quite a loose painting technique normally, and with vibrant colour.

The scope of my subject-matter includes figures in movement, based on studies of dancers in rehearsal; These lines and marks trace a sequence of movements, with an interplay of solid forms and spaces, with the introduction of metallic pigments which give an illusory appearance. I have taken a very similar approach with my equestrian work. As well-proportioned and athletic animals, they have been subjects for artists since Palaeolithic times. As with the human figure, the bone and muscle structure dictate very clearly what we see on the surface, and adding a rider gives another dynamic to the composition. The combination of speed, power, elegance and control, and the psychology of the relationship between horse and rider have been an extremely rich source of developmental possibilities for me, enjoying their full dramatic potential.

My latest paintings are the result of visiting 18th Century stables in an historic house, - beautifully designed spaces, with architectural elements such as arches, post divisions, hay racks, all testament to the value in which the horse was held. I felt that these spaces should be occupied by horses again, but perhaps the ghosts of horses. They are solid, but semi-transparent in places. Light falls on them, but through them at the same time. Some of this series, like “Zephyrus” featured here, have a strong colour component, but others, unusually for me, are almost monochrome, picking up the colour of the stonework, almost implying that the horses are also made of stone. I have also imagined how the time of day could influence the colours and tones, - some with diagonal streaks of sunlight, others, as illustrated by these images, the more subtle effects of moonlight or flickering shadows. Equestrian statues have always fascinated me, and I think these paintings show some influence of this - an image of an arrested movement, capturing a moment where we can understand what happened just before, and visualise what is about to happen next. “Red Pegasus” shows exactly this suspension of movement.

www.suemalkin.co.uk

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“ZEPHYRUS” Oil on canvas 85cm x 65cm Vibrant colour, transparent glazes as the form moves through the architecture. Red lacquer frame

“RED PEGASUS” Oil on canvas 65cm x 55cm Suspended motion as the horse and rider are airborne.Narrow black float frame

The Art of Investing with Tim Short

People are often confused by the claim that adding debt is a good thing. It looks highly counter-intuitive. It is nevertheless true that debt, and lots of it, is financially advantageous, providing it doesn’t make you go bankrupt. This is what I will explain in this post.

The situation is the same with corporates, but I will illustrate it using house prices, because those are more familiar to most people. Consider the adjacent diagram. This shows before and after for two different situations A and B. In both situations, the total value of your house is made up of debt and equity. In other words, you put down a deposit (equity) and you borrowed the rest (debt). In the diagram, I show debt in blue and equity in green. In both situations A and B, I am imagining that your house is initially worth £100,000 (before) and subsequently goes up by 10% so it is now worth £110,000. I know these numbers are unrealistic but it makes the maths easier and does not affect the argument.

The difference between the two situations is that the debt to equity mix is different. This is equivalent to saying that you put down a smaller deposit and borrowed more in scenario B. In both scenarios, the total funds applied (= debt + equity) must equal the initial house price of £100,000.

In scenario A, you put down a deposit of £20,000 and you borrowed an additional £80,000 to buy the house.

In scenario B, you put down a deposit of £10,000 and you borrowed an additional £90,000 to buy the house. Note that in scenario B, you have more debt — because you also have less equity.

Now watch what happens when house prices increase 10% in both scenarios. (This is shown by “after” in the diagram.) Nothing happens to the debt amounts. In scenario A, you now have a house worth £110,000 and the mortgage amount is still £80,000. The value of your equity is equal to the value of the house less the mortgage value, which is £110,000 - £80,000 = £30,000. So the £20,000 deposit you paid is now worth £30,000. That is a 50% return on equity.

Different things happen in scenario B. You now have a house worth £110,000 and the mortgage amount is still £90,000. The value of your equity is equal to the value of the house less the mortgage value, which is £110,000 - £90,000 = £20,000. So the £10,000 deposit you paid is now worth £20,000. That is a 100% return on equity.

You have doubled your money in scenario B! This is great news, even though the absolute amount of your equity is smaller. This leads to a common though mistaken objection. People might think that it is better to focus on absolute amount of equity rather than percentage return on equity. For example, if you have a £20,000 deposit, you want to invest all of that rather than only half.

So you might think that 80% of debt is better because you can then turn your £20,000 into £30,000 rather than turn £10,000 into £20,000 and have £10,000 left unused.

The reason this objection is wrong is that you can always place similar bets elsewhere. You could, if 90% mortgages were available, buy a £200,000 house with £20,000 equity and double that equity value to £40,000. That’s much better than increasing it to £30,000.

In fact, all of these numbers can be multiplied up arbitrarily. If you can’t find a £200,000 house, you can buy two £100,000 houses.

(At this point, we are maybe straining the metaphor somewhat, but certainly arbitrarily large amounts of stocks in companies are available and that is where this gearing illustration is really most at home.)

A word of warning: debt is sometimes all called “gearing” because the effects described above of leverage or debt are similar to the magnifying effect of bicycle gears. A small change in one item produces a large change in another. Here, a 10% change in the value of the house resulted in a 50% change in the value of the equity in scenario A and a 100% change in the value of the equity in scenario B. (In others, the equity was geared at 5:1 in scenario A and 10:1 in scenario B.). But these effects work exactly the same in the adverse direction! Note than in scenario B, a house price reduction of 10% reduces the value of the equity by half, but wipes it out altogether in scenario B! So be careful.

Improve your chances of winning in the market!

It is a fact that most people who participate in finance and the markets often lose instead of winning.

A winning strategy is of course required to win in the markets, but more often than not, the biggest culprit working against you is a lack of understanding of your psychology and biases.

In this thought-provoking book “The Psychology of Successful Trading”, author Tim Short analyse what it takes to understand your own psychology and mental behaviours.

Change your game, and become the winning investor or trader that you deserve to be!

The book is for sale on Amazon here

This book is the first to demonstrate the practical implications of an important, yet under-considered area of psychology in helping traders and investors understand the biases and attribution errors that drive unpredictable behaviour on the trading floor. Readers will improve their chances of trading successfully by learning where cognitive biases lead to errors in stock analysis and how these biases can be used to predict behaviour in market participants.

www.timlshort.com