Exhibition with Anna Gillespie and Katy Brown - A joint show by sculptor Anna Gillespie and painter Katy Brown generously sponsored by local firm, Investec.
Image 1, 'Windswept Tree on the Five Mile Road' oil on panel by Katy Brown
Image 2, 'Reclining Nude' plaster mixed media and resin by Anna Gillespie
ANNA GILLESPIE
Anna Gillespie first exhibited at the gallery last year as part of the Four Seasons Exhibition. Anna’s new work is a bold departure from the pieces she was previously known for. Replacing the organic tree materials, and the sense of absorption in the natural world, is a harder edge experience, expressed in a riskier, rawer form. The human figure is now in plaster - a material more often associated with the artist's studio. It’s use marks a preference for experimentation and frankness over the formality of the bronze edition. Although all work is available in both bronze and plaster, Anna explains: ‘’Solid Bronze' is almost never so in sculpture - it is predominantly hollow. Here hollowness is accentuated - the figures can, literally, be seen through.’
Anna eschews the idea of a comfort zone. Although trained as a stone mason, her first bronze sculptures were moulded from masking tape. Her work has always hinted at the combination of personal and political. Here the hints are more forceful and may allude to the way in which, disconnected from the natural world, the human experience is hollow in spite of material well-being.
The new work emphasises that art is not a refuge from political and emotional complexity. There is joy to be found here too, reflected in the glee of direct making. ‘The layers within any artwork can be physical – here in plaster upon plaster, built up, knocked back, dripped, flung and placed, pigment clinging to the depths of the texture. Beyond this are unseen dimensions – layers of process, emotion and narrative.’ Anna Gillespie
KATY BROWN
Katy Brown has exhibited in London, Bath, Cornwall and her native home, Jersey. For the last twenty years she has painted the ethereal landscapes of both Jersey and Cornwall, where she now lives as artist in residence on the Earl of Edgcumbe's Estate. Inspiration from nature and its transient elements have always been integral to the work.
Despite living in Cornwall for nearly 10 years, the Jersey palette and landscape are still very present in Katy’s work, albeit in a veiled, distilled, dream-like way.
Working in oil on canvas, using pure pigments and layers of glazes, Katy applies marks and layers of fluid colour to capture fleeting moments with an almost spiritual sagacity. Katy works intuitively and in series, creating a body of work that may take a few months or many years. ‘Layers are applied intuitively, through a painterly language of considered marks. These layers portray the mood and atmosphere of internal and external landscapes that I experience during each visit to the painting.’ Katy describes the act of painting as ‘… a process of distillation that occurs through the conscious and unconscious mind and senses, absorbing visual information and allowing the idea to pour onto the canvas, creating an emotional ambience that is both contemplative and compelling .’
When talking about her distinctive use of colour, she explains ‘I use colour to build a visual history, creating the transparent illusion of differing levels of depth, through extremes of dark and light, restraint and freedom, movement and stillness, absence and presence, within the two-dimensional space, giving the effect of overlaying many sheets of coloured glass.’
This summer Katy exhibited at the gallery’s Jersey Summer Exhibition and, as a consequence, won the Summer Prize. Much loved by local collectors, this will be her first major Jersey exhibition since she left.
By CCAI on 13/11/2018