Clay, Paint & Paper - 3 Artists

A group show which brings together the work of

Ian Byers, Phoebe Leigh & Pippa Marsh

 

Tuesday 23rd July to Saturday 3rd August 2019
Open 11am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday
Private View and Refreshments on Tuesday 23rd July, 6.30pm to 8.30pm

 Ian Byers

 Ian Byers 1Ian Byers 2

 

ORDER AND DISORDER - Every thing we order and make will become disordered over time. This group of forms, drawings and prints explores the theme.

Born in Birmingham a city well known for making guns, jewellery and motorbikes. I trained at The Central School of Art London in the late 1960s in three- dimensional design specialising in Ceramics. Since then I have taught in Art Schools and exhibited my work internationally. I have always been interested in the sculptural and expressive possibilities of clay as a medium but now other materials extend that single means of expression. I have worked with ceramics and sculptural ideas for many years, but some work is now mixed media, things that I have found then altered. Drawing is part of my art, I love its directness.

www.ianbyersceramics.co.uk

 

 Phoebe Leigh

Phoebe Wilcock 

Contemporary abstract art - full of life, texture and colour. A range of scale and materials on canvas to create unique dense texture you can’t resist but reach out to touch.

I grew up in the East Midlands, moving to London as a graduate for the next chapter of my life. After studying Art at A-level, I chose to read Maths at the University of Nottingham and am now a Chartered Accountant with a fulltime career in Corporate Tax. As one observer at my first exhibition said, this is my alter ego.

As a teenager, I always admired Anselm Kiefer’s work – his huge canvases with deep crevices where the layers of paint had started to crack and peel away, exposing something else beneath the surface. I have taken inspiration from his work and aspire to have a studio in the future where I can explore more with scale as well as medium and colour.

Mars was my first series, painted 9 years ago, where I experimented with stones and a glue gun before painting acrylic over the top to see how the materials complimented each other.

The colour of the triptych is dark, much like Kiefer’s early work, but as with all of my textured canvases, can look very different in different light, different places and at different times of the day.

More recently, I have explored with brighter colours and some of my latest pieces have taken inspiration from cosmic elements – perhaps my maths and physics background trying to break through in abstract form. I am certain this is also influenced by Emma Lindstrohm whose bright fluid paintings caught my eye on Instagram. Social media, more generally, is a big source of inspiration for me as it’s so prominent for my generation.

The marble effect pieces were painted with my own home in mind, inspired by my original Victorian marble fireplace surround. I enjoy the contrast between the bright, powerful work and the calm, subtle effect of muted colours merging into a unique piece outside of my control. All of my paintings look different when I come back to them and they have dried – which I love.

I paint my contemporary pieces in my modest flat in South West London in my spare time as a release and escape from my hectic corporate world.

Having started selling my work and taking commissions in 2017, I am excited to try even more new techniques and use colours I might not have picked myself to expand my collection and see my work evolve. Watch this space.

 

 Pippa Marsh

pippa marsh 1pippa marsh 2

 

My ceramics incorporate imprints and drawings from mementos I gather on walks as a way of recording my enduring fascination with landscape and nature. 

I collect when out walking unimportant or discarded objects from the ground: leaves, twigs, bits of metal and plastic that I later incorporate into my ceramic pieces. I choose items for the shape, texture and the mark making possibilities they offer. The bowls contain the imprint of plant matter on the porcelain interior, then that becomes framed and contained by the contrasting dark rim as if looking in at a specimen. The cylinder forms were mostly made on return from a visit to India. There was little opportunity to purchase souvenirs so I collected beans and seedpods mostly from walks in the Kumbhalgarh Nature Reserve. Some of the more exotic seedpods resemble elements of Indian architecture. In these pieces have used these natural forms as design motifs and to create patterns. The colours I selected reflect the warm, rich palette of the landscape and sari cloth worn by women in rural Rajasthan. Carving and inlay make for slightly unpredictable outlines around shapes. The tiles, whilst finished objects in themselves, also serve as a ceramic sketchbook, mini compositions of ideas and effects that help me plan and develop larger pieces. The work in this exhibition represents pieces made in the last eighteen months, they reflect my enduring fascination with landscape and nature.

Insta: pippamarsh7

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://www.facebook.com/sproutarts