West Midlands Open 2022 | The New Art Gallery Walsall

Lois Wallace — Temporary shelter

Painting

Lois Wallace — Temporary shelter

Painting

Artwork description:
Temporary shelter and Distant land are paintings that reflect on displacement, isolation and temporality. The tent as a motif has been a recurring theme as it symbolises fragility and defines boundaries. Demarcation of space creates a sense of possession however transitory this may be, generating a feeling of security and protection even though the framework is rudimentary to the point of collapse. These transient structures sit in dark uncertain spaces, the emptiness of the void in the landscape contrasts with the inviting glow of a distant coast line. The duality of space and limitation, presence and absence, the epic and the intimate, creates a narrative that is recognisable and familiar but at the same time unsettling and reflects upon our current times in a poignant way.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Oil on copper
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.loiswallace.co.uk

Lois Wallace — Distant land

Lois Wallace — Distant land

Painting

Lois Wallace — Distant land

Painting

Artwork description:
See above statement as these paintings are made as a pair.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Oil on copper
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.loiswallace.co.uk

Lorsen Camps — Eye Test (Pink)

Lorsen Camps — Eye Test (Pink)

Painting

Lorsen Camps — Eye Test (Pink)

Painting

Artwork description:
Polystyrene is so prevalent as a waste material, often despised if it is even seen at all. My work challenges people’s response to it and how they perceive the often unnoticed things around them. I’ve used this reclaimed polystyrene sheet as a canvas, celebrating and emphasising the texture and material through my use of paint. Looking closely at this type of polystyrene reminded me of the dots in old colour blind tests. I carefully painted the individual beads within a circle to evoke these, and wanted it to resemble a world/planet and a sense of journey through. I have used a flat matt black paint against bright, regular acrylics to suggest an illusory depth to the dots and create a different kind of eye test.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Paint on reclaimed polystyrene
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.lorsencamps.com
https://www.instagram.com/lorsencamps

Lou Blakeway — Allie II

Lou Blakeway — Allie II

Painting

Lou Blakeway — Allie II

Painting

Artwork description:
A small figurative painting in watercolour
Date:
2021
Medium:
Watercolour on paper
Category:
Painting

Lou Blakeway — Trixie (Love)

Lou Blakeway — Trixie (Love)

Painting

Lou Blakeway — Trixie (Love)

Painting

Artwork description:
Oil painting on panel
Date:
2021
Medium:
Oil on panel
Category:
Painting

LU WENJUAN — Shining Moment 7

LU WENJUAN — Shining Moment 7

Painting

LU WENJUAN — Shining Moment 7

Painting

Artwork description:
The creation of 'Shining Moment' was mainly oil paintings of the tiny daily and special scenes of life. Through lights, shadows, and film-like compositions, they expressed real and film-like moments of life. This 'Shining Moment' project has Sisyphus-like dilemma and exploration of the meaning of life. WENJUAN LU wanted to use this creation to encourage her self, and others, to truly experience the feeling of living in the present, to cherish the present life and people. Even if these moments were tiny, they were nevertheless shiny.
Date:
2021
Category:
Painting
https://instagram.com/lunalu_artist?utm_medium=copy_link

Mac McCoig — Titanic

Mac McCoig — Titanic

Painting

Mac McCoig — Titanic

Painting

Artwork description:
This work depicts 32 shoes in pairs, half women's shoes, half men's. The shoes are not new, they appear worn, but the owners are absent, yet the absence of presence is implicit within the shoes, as anyone who has experienced those left behind by a departed relative can testify. An enduring image for me was pictures of shoes scattered, but in pairs, on the sea bed around the sunken wreck of the Titanic; the only surviving remnant of the unfortunate passengers. The bright colours and high gloss finish of the work both belies and enhances the tensions of the absent presence of the wearers.
Date:
2019
Medium:
Acrylic
Category:
Painting

Maggie Leaver — Heroes, not just for one day

Maggie Leaver — Heroes, not just for one day

Painting

Maggie Leaver — Heroes, not just for one day

Painting

Artwork description:
This piece communicates my concern during lockdown for NHS staff and other carers and key workers. The stress and trauma they were being exposed to and experiencing themselves I felt would not be over when or if covid was under control. Much was worse than it should have been as resources and staff had been run down over previous years. I was hoping to communicate that this situation should not have been so bad for staff and we should not allow this to happen again and forget how precious the NHS and other key workers are.
Date:
September 202
Medium:
oil
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.maggieleaver.com
https://www.instagram.com/maggieleaver/
https://facebook.com/maggieleaverpaintings/

Manjeet Singh Gill — Lost In Space

Manjeet Singh Gill — Lost In Space

Painting

Manjeet Singh Gill — Lost In Space

Painting

Artwork description:
Earth is on the cusp of a new awakening, some would say a spiritual awakening. This piece depicts the separation of relationships, lovers, body from soul - the idea that some will transition to a new earth, leaving behind those unwilling to change.
Date:
12/04/21
Medium:
Digital
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://retromanni.myportfolio.com/

Manjeet Singh Gill — Neon Alley Cat

Manjeet Singh Gill — Neon Alley Cat

Painting

Manjeet Singh Gill — Neon Alley Cat

Painting

Artwork description:
An experiment with light. By illuminating only that which is necessary, the story unfolds from the darkness. A relationship between 3 shadows in a dystopian neon city street.
Date:
12/09/2020
Medium:
Digital
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://retromanni.myportfolio.com/

Marcus Keating — hypervigilant and numb no longer able to keep each other safe blue heaven thickshakes and a plate of chips

Marcus Keating — hypervigilant and numb no longer able to keep each other safe blue heaven thickshakes and a plate of chips

Painting

Marcus Keating — hypervigilant and numb no longer able to keep each other safe blue heaven thickshakes and a plate of chips

Painting

Artwork description:
Before the first wave, I uncovered a history of sexual trauma, via a series of repeated memories. I began writing and documenting any recollection that recurred and found a pattern of peripherally violent and enabling behaviours. I then used heavily watered-down gouache to recreate the text. With memory comes a level of uncertainty and fogginess, so by turning the texts into misty poetry with vague narratives; I am able to visualise and make sense of a haphazard and precarious upbringing. Hypervigilant and Stocking are two 1m x 1m unframed gouache paintings on calico. They show a series of white text surrounded by watery paint applied in block sections bleeding into one another. The text explores anecdotes surrounding moments of childhood panic and comfort. This dichotomy being a prominent motif in my upbringing. Early memories of sexual trauma and an unhealthy obsession with sensational news both pushed and pulled me toward an understanding of safety hanging on a knife’s edge.
Date:
Jan 2022
Medium:
Gouache on calico
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://marcusjkeating.wixsite.com/mysite

Marcus Keating — stocking pulled over his face kids in a mall on cctv big hands crushing my chest

Marcus Keating — stocking pulled over his face kids in a mall on cctv big hands crushing my chest

Painting

Marcus Keating — stocking pulled over his face kids in a mall on cctv big hands crushing my chest

Painting

Artwork description:
Before the first wave, I uncovered a history of sexual trauma, via a series of repeated memories. I began writing and documenting any recollection that recurred and found a pattern of peripherally violent and enabling behaviours. I then used heavily watered-down gouache to recreate the text. With memory comes a level of uncertainty and fogginess, so by turning the texts into misty poetry with vague narratives; I am able to visualise and make sense of a haphazard and precarious upbringing. Hypervigilant and Stocking are two 1m x 1m unframed gouache paintings on calico. They show a series of white text surrounded by watery paint applied in block sections bleeding into one another. The text explores anecdotes surrounding moments of childhood panic and comfort. This dichotomy being a prominent motif in my upbringing. Early memories of sexual trauma and an unhealthy obsession with sensational news both pushed and pulled me toward an understanding of safety hanging on a knife’s edge.
Date:
Jan 2022
Medium:
Gouache on calico
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://marcusjkeating.wixsite.com/mysite

Maria Wigley — That Day

Maria Wigley — That Day

Mixed Media

Maria Wigley — That Day

Mixed Media

Artwork description:
Exploring metaphorical landscapes. I am drawn towards the internal landscape. The land makes us who we are. We are part of the land, as it is part of us. The physical world but also an inner world. A place of deep personal and sensory connection between an individual and a particular location. The work poses a sense of environment, a foreboding landscape somewhere distant. The scrambled words; traces of human tracks, and stories. Histories made, some permanent and past down, others just travel off in the wind deleted without a trace.
Date:
September 2021
Medium:
Paper, paint, silk, thread
Category:
Mixed Media
Website/s:
https://www.mariawigley.co.uk
https://www.instagram.com/mariawigley

Mark Houghton — Slotz

Mark Houghton — Slotz

Painting

Mark Houghton — Slotz

Painting

Artwork description:
Drawing made from board that had previously been used as a work table. "Accidental" and "inherited"marks were the inspiration for the composition.
Date:
2021
Medium:
wood, paint, ink
Category:
Painting

Mark Murphy — In the bag

Other

Mark Murphy — In the bag

Other

Mark Murphy — In the bag

Other

Artwork description:
'In the bag' is a hand cut paper collage made from found vintage print elements. It's abstract form combines figurative and urban fragments that suggest both a city and an undefinable human interaction, the colours of which suggest a possible surgical or healthcare setting, These disparate elements are bound together by a orange tube that weaves through the created perspective. This work was made in the weeks before the first national lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic. It creates an atmosphere that could be read as a building sense of uncertainty.
Date:
February 2020
Medium:
Hand Cut Paper Collage
Category:
Other
Website/s:
http://www.markmurph.co.uk

Mark Murphy — ‘Slowly unravelling’

Other

Mark Murphy — ‘Slowly unravelling’

Other

Mark Murphy — ‘Slowly unravelling’

Other

Artwork description:
'Slowly unravelling' is a hand cut paper collage made from found vintage print elements. The work depicts a woman, elbows raised as if leaning, obscured by a textured band that wraps around her. A typographic and globe fragment fill the top left corner of the piece. The predominantly black and white elements are accentuated by a shard of deep magenta positioned to the left of the figure. This abstract work, plays with composition and what we can and can't see and the questions and interpretations this obscuring brings.
Date:
April 2o21
Medium:
Hand Cut Paper Collage
Category:
Other
Website/s:
http://www.markmurph.co.uk

Marwa Sayed — Facing

Marwa Sayed — Facing

Painting

Marwa Sayed — Facing

Painting

Artwork description:
It is an attempt to enter the subconscious and translate or organize feelings using a few colours. In this painting, I express the idea of facing things greater than one's own capabilities. Standing alone, a small child with an incomplete wing. He does not know if he should move forward or stand in the same place to avoid possible consequences.
Medium:
Watercolours and Ink on paper
Category:
Painting
https://www.instagram.com/marwa.kamall/

Matt Greenhill — Lower Trinity Street, Digbeth, Birmingham

Matt Greenhill — Lower Trinity Street, Digbeth, Birmingham

Painting

Matt Greenhill — Lower Trinity Street, Digbeth, Birmingham

Painting

Artwork description:
This work forms an impression of Lower Trinity Street in Digbeth, a thoroughfare that links the Custard Factory to Dead Wax records, via the Night Owl Club. It is purposefully stripped back, without the customary street furniture, road markings, street art and graffiti typically found in the area.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Acrylic on canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.mattgreenhill.com/

Matt Greenhill — Chez Michelle Florist, Borough Market

Matt Greenhill — Chez Michelle Florist, Borough Market

Painting

Matt Greenhill — Chez Michelle Florist, Borough Market

Painting

Artwork description:
The rustic and decorative frontage of Chez Michelle florist, until its closure in the Summer of 2020, was a popular location with London’s street photographers. This work is derived from a photograph I took in 2016. The shop was positioned on Stoney Street near to the entrance of vibrant Borough Market, a locality that attracts thousands of visitors each day as well as being a hub for the local Bermondsey community. In a previous location under the railway arches on Stoney Street, Chez Michelle served as the location for the Leaky Cauldren in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In the current climate of uncertainty the area is a beacon of resilience and recovery as in June 2017 it was the focus of a terrorist attack. This work depicts the everyday occurrence of a florist preparing cut flowers and a customer making an impulsive visit.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Acrylic on canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.mattgreenhill.com/

Maxwell Nichols — Daddy chill

Maxwell Nichols — Daddy chill

Painting

Maxwell Nichols — Daddy chill

Painting

Artwork description:
Oil on Aluminium disc Highly gloss and reflective finish which is difficult to photograph
Date:
November 2021
Medium:
Oil on Aluminium
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://maxwellnichols.co.uk/

Melanie Woodhead — Transitional Spaces and Ages in Times of Climate Crisis

Melanie Woodhead — Transitional Spaces and Ages in Times of Climate Crisis

Photography

Melanie Woodhead — Transitional Spaces and Ages in Times of Climate Crisis

Photography

Artwork description:
Eco-anxiety and its psychological effects are increasing and having a disproportionate impact on young people. The artwork is from a current series based on practice-led PhD research exploring transitional spaces and ages in times of climate crisis. Winnicott defined transitional space as an intermediate area; a space of experiencing between inner and outer worlds where creativity exists. The piece merges an image of my thirteen-year-old son, with that of seed heads and leaf skeletons found on our walks together. Combining inkjet transfers with the transaquatype process, the image was soaked in water causing colours to bleed and behave unpredictably. New spaces emerge and create a fluidity that questions the gap between me and not me, offering alternative visions of our shared environmental future.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Inkjet transfer and transaquatype print
Category:
Photography
Website/s:
https://artandgardening.wordpress.com/

Meta Mezan — Static Time

Meta Mezan — Static Time

Painting

Meta Mezan — Static Time

Painting

Artwork description:
In the painting I am connecting computer-made imagery with the organic mark-making form. Added shadows transform the abstract object into a possible existing one, it adds gravity and the dimensional weight. The shadow is lively with the brush marks that reminds of the linocut print. The object is placed in an invented space, to bring it closer to the known world.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://metamezan.wixsite.com/mmart

Meta Mezan — The Comet is Coming

Meta Mezan — The Comet is Coming

Painting

Meta Mezan — The Comet is Coming

Painting

Artwork description:
In the painting I am connecting computer-made imagery with the organic mark-making form and geometric shapes. Added shadows transform the abstract object into a possible existing one, it adds gravity and the dimensional weight. The geometric forms are applied thicker with the technique of collage, and are standing out of the surface, which adds their own shadow, and continue the tension between the contrasts.
Date:
2022
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://metamezan.wixsite.com/mmart

Michelle Foley — Standing On Your Own One Foot

Michelle Foley — Standing On Your Own One Foot

Mixed Media

Michelle Foley — Standing On Your Own One Foot

Mixed Media

Artwork description:
During lockdown I felt very alone and isolated. This is a drawing of a sculpture I made examining what I was feeling by being so alone.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Mixed media including charcoal, sycamore leaf juice and used cooking oil
Category:
Mixed Media

Mikeala Dowling — Bowling 2022

Mikeala Dowling — Bowling 2022

Photography

Mikeala Dowling — Bowling 2022

Photography

Artwork description:
This is another shot of the bowling balls used by my sister Lisa, as we continue to bowl in the new year 2022, as after two years we are still waiting for her day centre to open. After COVID happened,it was shut down for now two years and Lisa has been coming to bowl with me. All these funky colours represent our happiness at bowling together every week at Hollywood Bowl, Rubery, but also the balls are very different to the first Bowling 2021 image. We have been bowling every Thursday for that long, they’ve even renovated in that time. I noticed the change and it made me giggle, but the harshness of the colours and repetition of the shot also resembles the time we are still waiting to see when Lisa can once again bowl with her friends at day centre.
Date:
January 2022
Medium:
Photo print A3
Category:
Photography

Natalie Brooks — Murmuration (Study for Decline)

Natalie Brooks — Murmuration (Study for Decline)

Drawing

Natalie Brooks — Murmuration (Study for Decline)

Drawing

Artwork description:
This is a study for a planned much larger piece which is about my own struggle with postnatal depression. The birds and bees are symbolic of a new chapter and motherhood, but with both of my children, I was not prepared for the decline in my mental health. The idea of the group murmuration of birds can be taken on the surface as a comment upon declining bird and bee populations, but to me the shape of the murmuration signifies the build up and sudden drop of emotion within myself and he resulting decline in my metal state. The dead birds are a reference to the horrors that my mind would conjure up whilst being expected to continue along with the flock of other women who must fill the obligation of day to day childcare regardless of overwhelming imbalance within. I think PND is something that should be out in the open and talked about more.
Date:
Dec 2021
Medium:
Pencil, Ink and Eyeshadow on Tracing Paper
Category:
Drawing

Nathan McGill — The Photographer Is Me

Nathan McGill — The Photographer Is Me

Photography

Nathan McGill — The Photographer Is Me

Photography

Artwork description:
‘The Photographer Is Me’ is a participatory arts photography project in collaboration with a community of West Midlands based asylum seekers. Catalysed by the desire to shift the power dynamic within photography, the project set out host virtual workshops with intent to educate, inform and cultivate a safe space for participants to express their creativity. Via the combination of participant photographs, emulsion lifts, oral storytelling and artist portraits – the project has realised into a photobook co-authored by McGill and his participants. Individuals seeking asylum in Britain often live on the margins of society after fleeing their native country, their life has been catapulted from one nation to another. Yet, even as they find comfort in Britain, they are met with the hostile environment imposed by the British government. It was always important to support the participants creative development through such a creative service that is often not provided to individuals seeking asy
Date:
01/05/2021
Medium:
Medium format 120mm
Category:
Photography
Website/s:
https://www.nathanmcgill.co.uk

Nathan McGill — The Women In Trees

Nathan McGill — The Women In Trees

Photography

Nathan McGill — The Women In Trees

Photography

Artwork description:
The Women in Trees is an on-going collaborative portraiture project founded upon the the celebration of natural Afro hair. The work was inspired by the over-representation of Eurocentric beauty standards embedded into Western society. In particular, I encountered a photo-book that collated archival images found in flea markets of women photographed in and around trees. What I noticed was that all of the women were from European backgrounds, and so I felt an urge to challenge this domination of Eurocentrism. The Women in Trees provides a space for women that embody and embrace the beauty of their Afro hair to express their thoughts and opinions regarding their hair without the interference of external bodies suggesting what is acceptable and what is not. Through a series of open-calls, participants from across England were casted to participate in the body of work and have their portrait captured within nature. Alongside portraits, semi-structured interviews were conducted in order t
Date:
10/01/2020
Medium:
Medium format 120mm
Category:
Photography
Website/s:
https://www.nathanmcgill.co.uk

Nick James — Imagined Comos 7

Nick James — Imagined Comos 7

Painting

Nick James — Imagined Comos 7

Painting

Artwork description:
This work is part of 9 abstract, lyrical landscapes: Imagined Cosmos.inspired, somewhat by a conversation I had at the Hare Krishna temple in. Birmingham. I was told, something along the lines of, ‘Lord Krishna awakes before everyone and paints the skies’ to which I replied, ‘Why does he paint it the same every time?’ The response I got was almost blank, perhaps that as if I were a little crazy. However, to me as a painter it seemed bizarre, that it was pretty much the same every time, It is true, there are seasons, emotions and different moods, however, the pallet is a little too limited. The series is nine, 94 x94 cm acrylic on canvas, created on the floor, taking whichever approach allowed me to create what inspired me in the moment. Pouring paint, on the floor allows me to become a physical part of the work while I create it, while also allowing me to become meditative and, of the moment, working instinctively. I hope the work inspires inner peace and tranquility and healing.
Date:
November 2021
Medium:
Acrylic on Canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://words-pictures-music.netlify.app/
https://www.instagram.com/ragmanjones/

Nick James — Imagined Comos 5

Nick James — Imagined Comos 5

Painting

Nick James — Imagined Comos 5

Painting

Artwork description:
This work is part of 9 abstract, lyrical landscapes: Imagined Cosmos.inspired, somewhat by a conversation I had at the Hare Krishna temple in. Birmingham. I was told, something along the lines of, ‘Lord Krishna awakes before everyone and paints the skies’ to which I replied, ‘Why does he paint it the same every time?’ The response I got was almost blank, perhaps that as if I were a little crazy. However, to me as a painter it seemed bizarre, that it was pretty much the same every time, It is true, there are seasons, emotions and different moods, however, the pallet is a little too limited. The series is nine, 94 x94 cm acrylic on canvas, created on the floor, taking whichever approach allowed me to create what inspired me in the moment. Pouring paint, on the floor allows me to become a physical part of the work while I create it, while also allowing me to become meditative and, of the moment, working instinctively. I hope the work inspires inner peace and tranquility and healing.
Date:
November 2021
Medium:
Acrylic on Canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://words-pictures-music.netlify.app/
https://www.instagram.com/ragmanjones/

Niki Gandy — Moment: In Flux

Niki Gandy — Moment: In Flux

Mixed Media

Niki Gandy — Moment: In Flux

Mixed Media

Artwork description:
One of an ongoing series of works exploring the limitations of memory and nostalgia in revisiting a single moment of nondescript domesticity. These pieces are left unfixed to enable the image to continue to shift and distort over time, the piece literally holding its own memory.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Graphite-glazed/hand-finished multiexposed digitised pinhole photograph on brushed aluminium
Category:
Mixed Media
Website/s:
http://nikigandy.co.uk

Nita Newman — Celadon Green Bo Peep & her Cappamore Ram

Nita Newman — Celadon Green Bo Peep & her Cappamore Ram

Painting

Nita Newman — Celadon Green Bo Peep & her Cappamore Ram

Painting

Artwork description:
The characters are objects from my mantelpiece. Bo Peep is from the fairy tale The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. In the painting Bo Peep is depicted as a strong woman, she has been elevated from a cheap lime green ceramic object by subtly changing the glaze into Celadon Green. Celadon green was considered so beautiful that only royalty could look at it. Though the name celadon is French, for centuries the colour was known by the Chinese as mi se, meaning ‘mysterious colour." The word Céladon first appeared as a character in Honoré d'Urfé's 17th Century French pastoral romance, L'Astrée (1627). Astrée's lover, Céladon was a shepherd who wore pale green ribbons. Bo Peep now wears the colours of the shepherd. Her sheep have been replaced by a powerful ‘Cappamore Ram,’ an Irish souvenir. The painting is pure artifice, the matt surface fakes the impression of a shiny glaze, and references collage within its dropped shadow.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Acrylic on board
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.nitanewman.com/

Oliver Jones — Doll #135

Oliver Jones — Doll #135

Drawing

Oliver Jones — Doll #135

Drawing

Artwork description:
Barbie, an image once used as a reference for feminine ideal, continues to diversify and incorporate a much wider cross section of society, (shown here by "Fashionista Doll #135") As much as this is a very positive step in representing groups who are under-represented in such areas (in this instance, individuals with skin conditions/vitiligo) it again eludes to the ‘media/industry machine’ being responsible for standardising the image of ‘normality’ whilst simultaneously differentiating between what is or isn’t acceptable within societal norms. Who are the custodians of what is ‘normal’ and who is responsible for choosing that which is used to represent it?
Date:
May 2021
Medium:
Pastel on Paper
Category:
Drawing
Website/s:
http://www.olivercjones.com

Oliver Jones — Untitled

Oliver Jones — Untitled

Drawing

Oliver Jones — Untitled

Drawing

Artwork description:
This an observational work from a series that comments on the DIY/self-help beauty therapies, processes and regimes prevalent on the internet, social media and sold to us through the media and industry. It comments on the lengths to which we are prepared to extend in order to conform to the standards of acceptability within society whilst in pursuit of 'perfection’
Date:
April 2020
Medium:
Pastel on Paper
Category:
Drawing
Website/s:
http://www.olivercjones.com

Olivia Cormell — What is Missing?

Olivia Cormell — What is Missing?

Drawing

Olivia Cormell — What is Missing?

Drawing

Artwork description:
This is a drawing of Coventry City Centre. There are tall buildings, a water feature and little market stalls. There are blank spaces within the images where I've removed the green spaces from the drawing.
Date:
22nd October 2021
Medium:
ink on paper
Category:
Drawing
https://www.instagram.com/olivia_cormell_art/

Olivier Jamin — Drawing hand – Free as a Bird

Olivier Jamin — Drawing hand – Free as a Bird

Mixed Media

Olivier Jamin — Drawing hand – Free as a Bird

Mixed Media

Artwork description:
Inspired by one of Escher‘s best-known images, this lithograph of two hands drawing each other presents several of the artist’s favourite concepts. Many years ago, I heard a song called 'Free as a Bird' from the Beatles which was on the B-side album of 'Christmas Time (Is Here Again). "Free as a Bird" is a single released in 1995 by the Beatles. The song was originally written and recorded in 1977 as a home demo by John Lennon, the band's founding member. In 1995, 25 years after their break-up and 15 years after Lennon was murdered, his surviving bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr released a studio version incorporating the demo. You may be puzzled that as someone born Deaf (Artist) it does not mean I cannot hear music. I am able to hear the sounds and some of the words through use of my hearing aids. Reading the lyrics does help and give me further understanding of their meaning.
Date:
20/02/2022
Medium:
Hand drawn using Posca pen with colour taped and holographic/glitter hand sticker on card
Category:
Mixed Media
Website/s:
https://www.ojart.net/

Paul Crook — Escalators

Paul Crook — Escalators

Painting

Paul Crook — Escalators

Painting

Artwork description:
In this painting the architectural forms are abstracted into a fragmentation of shape, light, colour and space; a broken but inter-connected geometric surface. I am interested in the reading of the image as being simultaneously about the flat foreground, alongside the recessive illusionary elements. The escalators are readable as three-dimensional structures but also as a series of orange and green interlocking two-dimensional shapes.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Acrylic on Canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.paulcrookpaintings.co.uk

Paul Crook — Yellow Subway

Paul Crook — Yellow Subway

Painting

Paul Crook — Yellow Subway

Painting

Artwork description:
Over the last few years I have been making a series of paintings based on subways. This is one of a number of locations that have become a significant part of my personal geography. These places are far more than merely functional public spaces, they form part of our remembered shared significant histories. In the paintings I attempt to slow down the moment of ‘passing through’ and take a more measured view of the beauty that exists in these utilitarian places. The painting is equally about the process of its making. I am interested in the journey taken during the construction of painting, the decisions made to slowly establish something fresh and removed from what was initially observed.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Acrylic on Canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.paulcrookpaintings.co.uk

Paul Newman — The Last Day Revisited

Paul Newman — The Last Day Revisited

Mixed Media

Paul Newman — The Last Day Revisited

Mixed Media

Artwork description:
The Last Day Revisited 2020. ‘The Last Day’ has a history, originating as a studio performance in 2012, a photographic print and a digital animation at mac birmingham in a solo exhibition ‘Stage’ 2015. The set up in the studio depicts painting related ephemera, studio detritus, and performance props including the main character ‘the man with a sugar cube for a head’. The image was composed and presented like a painting. It’s sort of a fictional self-portrait featuring several reoccurring motifs from my practice. The narrative of the artist’s studio references depictions such as Studio by Phillip Guston, 1969. ‘The Last Day Revisited’, 2020 was created during the first lockdown. Taking one of the prints I had at home, I painted over the photograph, adding new elements of abstraction, and intertwining the relationship between the photograph and painting. The result is a darker, queasier version of the original…
Date:
2020
Medium:
Acrylic paint on C-Type photographic print
Category:
Mixed Media
Website/s:
https://paul-newman.net/

Paul Newman — Mechanical Fly Study

Paul Newman — Mechanical Fly Study

Painting

Paul Newman — Mechanical Fly Study

Painting

Artwork description:
The Mechanical Fly Study 2021 The Human Fly has been a recurring character in my paintings, drawings and performance works since 2007. It was originally Inspired by a B&W movie still from The Return of the Fly 1958 in an old Monsters of the Movies book, depicting a suited man fly standing in a doorway. This has been expanded, exploring the matter-of-fact acceptance of accelerating mutation in David Cronenberg’s tragic 1986 film version of the Fly which in turn references Franz Kafka’s short story Metamorphosis 1915. Mechanical Fly Study depicts a version of the fly framed or trapped in some form of architectural structure. The environment the fly is embedded is in itself in a state of flux and links to another series of works; ‘Interior studies’. In this series various characters with references ranging from Romantic era paintings, movie monsters and Don Quixote, are trapped or wandering through imaginary landscapes in a state of flux, never reaching a destination.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Water colour, gouache, ink on paper
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://paul-newman.net/

Philip Singleton — Imperial 1 Window

Philip Singleton — Imperial 1 Window

Photography

Philip Singleton — Imperial 1 Window

Photography

Artwork description:
The Pause Project; the images capture a reflective, meditative, intimate view of buildings that are in a pause state, life has left them, they await death by demolition or new breath through new use. Often the marks and scars of use are recorded on walls and surfaces, but human life has departed. The body of work is growing as each building is accessed through careful negotiation and recorded as a memory to be shared. Philip sees this as an important gathering of memories as towns and cities once again embark on the growing pains of massive regeneration. “Defining : The moment of discontinuity : The state of in-between”. “Acting : To dwell in the moment and capture the interstitial state”. Philip has exhibited in Birmingham and London and has his work hung by collectors in Hong Kong, London and Birmingham.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Printed onto aluminium sheets 750x750mm
Category:
Photography
Website/s:
www.philipsingleton.art

Philip Singleton — Imperial 2 Seats

Philip Singleton — Imperial 2 Seats

Photography

Philip Singleton — Imperial 2 Seats

Photography

Artwork description:
The Pause Project; the images capture a reflective, meditative, intimate view of buildings that are in a pause state, life has left them, they await death by demolition or new breath through new use. Often the marks and scars of use are recorded on walls and surfaces, but human life has departed. The body of work is growing as each building is accessed through careful negotiation and recorded as a memory to be shared. Philip sees this as an important gathering of memories as towns and cities once again embark on the growing pains of massive regeneration. “Defining : The moment of discontinuity : The state of in-between”. “Acting : To dwell in the moment and capture the interstitial state”. Philip has exhibited in Birmingham and London and has his work hung by collectors in Hong Kong, London and Birmingham.
Date:
2022
Medium:
Printed onto aluminium sheets 750x750mm
Category:
Photography
Website/s:
www.philipsingleton.art

Rachel Doughty — Loss

Rachel Doughty — Loss

Mixed Media

Rachel Doughty — Loss

Mixed Media

Artwork description:
This art work has been made from textiles, linens and small found objects from my parent’s house, found whilst clearing their house last year when they both died within 6 months of each other. The very process of the handling of the cloth, manipulating it into soft sculptures and adorning it with found objects is part of my healing process. In much of my work the process of making is just as important as the final outcome. The forms within this piece are made by hand stitching and stuffing and then the use of needle sculpting alters the forms. Some of the forms need repairs where the fabric is worn or have been hand stitched which not only decorates but attaches found and recycled objects. These forms are then stitched together and although some consideration is given to composition, the shape of the final piece evolves in a very organic, unplanned way. The cathartic process continues and I will be making many more sculptures in homage to my parents.
Date:
December 2021
Medium:
Textiles, found objects, polyester stuffing and thread.
Category:
Mixed Media

Rachel Magdeburg — Smeared Digits

Rachel Magdeburg — Smeared Digits

Painting

Rachel Magdeburg — Smeared Digits

Painting

Artwork description:
'Smeared Digits' explores the mythic intangibility and pretence of contactless and immateriality shrouding digital technology. The greasy finger swipes on screens, clunky hardware, infrastructure and mined minerals tell otherwise of user's and labourer's bodies, and a variety of component materials. For this painting, Rachel has used a palette knife to smear paint across the screen creating a tension between the haptic and the optic, two and three dimensionality, surface and depth.
Date:
2021
Medium:
Acrylic on iPad
Category:
Painting

Rafal Zar — Perseverance

Rafal Zar — Perseverance

Painting

Rafal Zar — Perseverance

Painting

Artwork description:
Perseverance belongs to a series Braided People. They all consists of 3 ingredients. Their imaginary bodies are made of 2 ribbons. They are like 2 forces. 1 negative, destructive and the other positive and loving. The 3rd ingredient is a face made of fragile membrane, always smiling. This represents fragility of my psyche and endless attempt to find joy & happiness in life. Every painting in this series is a reminder to stay positive in life.
Date:
June 2021
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Category:
Painting
Website/s:
https://www.brushwithdeath.org/

Ralouka Montesi — No beginning No end

Ralouka Montesi — No beginning No end

Photography

Ralouka Montesi — No beginning No end

Photography

Artwork description:
A couple is passing by a large scaled painting. It feels like they are transported by this dynamic reality that is presented to them. ICM has been used in order to show further the incessant repetition and movement of these patterned circles as if they were signs of the eternal existence of life with all its various scenes. The photo is in B&W to express better this idea.
Category:
Photography
Website/s:
https://www.raloukamontesi.com

Richard Scott — Time-Gestalt

Richard Scott — Time-Gestalt

Drawing

Richard Scott — Time-Gestalt

Drawing

Artwork description:
This drawing contains 75,600 dots made with a permanent marker on 12 sheets of A4 graph paper. The diamond shape which is visible is a natural artefact of the drawing process. I started the picture at the centre of the diamond and built outwards, clockwise along four diagonals - the tendency of any given dot to most closely resemble those drawn immediately before and after it causes a pattern to appear which delineates the order in which they were made. I knew that variations in shape and size of dots would occur naturally, (due to changing pressure of the pen, ink running at different rates, changing sitting position, etc.) so I didn't try to control them, I just stuck to my order and let the pattern occur by itself. The title is a reference to this process: the linear character of time alone forms the perceptual gestalt (shape) seen in the drawing.
Date:
August 2020
Medium:
permanent marker on graph paper
Category:
Drawing
Website/s:
https://richard-scott.info/
https://www.instagram.com/richarddaviescott/

Rob Leckey — Mevagissey Harbour