New Gallery Exhibition at Valentines Mansion

The Gallery at Valentines Mansion showcases many exhibitions throughout the year, and this year, our very own studio artists will help us see the year out with an impressive collection of work.

The theme was simply a chance to reflect and show off new work from this year, and the result has been a brilliantly varied collection of pieces from our talented makers. Visitors can browse a range of artistic disciplines in this free art show, from paintings and portraits to basketry and stained glass from our nine local artists.

Featured Artists:

Tara Fleur

‘The Travelling Man’ is a portrait of a friend who sat for the painting over a one-day period. This painting as with all my paintings take on their own life with an emphasis on the soul of the sitter energising and directing my creative process, via communicating the sitters truth, beyond the banal into the nature of their being in and beyond this world. Metaphysics meet Art is what I strive for as an artist with an active third eye’.

 

Julian Walker

“The smaller of the two ‘Weather Forecast’ prints is made from a boxwood block. Box is a slow-growing dense hardwood, which can give highly detailed cuts, and which for over 200 years has been a favourite among British artists and illustrators. Sadly, over the past two decades, the accidentally introduced boxwood-tree moth Cydalima perspectalis has destroyed most of the box trees in the south-east – you can see the damage in many gardens, including Valentines. This alone is a strong indicator of how we need to manage our world more intelligently.”

 

Jason Rose

Inspired by cymatics, the study of visible sound, Jason has created this portrait of Davida in the process of leading her choir in song surrounded by symmetrical shapes normally created through musical vibrations.   “The shapes are cymatic patterns (complex geometric manifestations created from the vibration of sound waves – the higher the frequency the more complex the pattern).  These patterns are found throughout existence, from sunflowers to cells, from sub atomic particles to spiral galaxies. It’s why music can have such a powerful and healing effect on us.”

 

 

Lisa Atkin

“Spending 5 glorious days studying “off loom” techniques pioneered by the artist Tadek Beutlich, immersed in the craft heaven that is West Dean College of Arts, Design, Craft & Conservation, resulted in me creating works exploring the theme of “Family”. Each hand-woven element being a distinct, separate entity and personality of its own, yet intrinsically linked to its family by a common thread.”

 

 

Sheila Louis (Gepher)

Gepher’s work draws influences from a new found appreciation of basketry and her career in textiles design and teaching. Although finding inspiration is never challenging, her awareness of environmental issues plays a huge part in her choice of materials.

“The basket was made using as its core old telephone wires coiled with cotton threads. The process was slow, 3 hours a day over 3 months to create. Why so long? To preserve my hands and to relax and enjoy the making process in creating a beautiful functioning object. Added to that the smile at wondering in the future the question that might be asked what are telephone wires?”

 

Anne Eggebert

“These watercolours are islands of the imagination drawn from indicators on Google maps, clues of pattern and colour; islands that may be too remote or small to have been peopled, or brackish land that no longer supports survival crops, over-topped by rising seas. Our emissions wash over and poison landscapes and crumble our coasts – here, there, now.

Sometimes we refuse to see what is right before our eyes.”

Anne has an essay, ‘Global Ghost Map’, in a new book Pattern and Chaos in Art, Science and Everyday Life published by Intellect, which discusses drawing, distance and empathy.

Other artists:

Amanda Seljubac
Louise Moore
Emily Wenn

The art gallery at Valentines Mansion is open every Sunday and Monday, 10.30am-4pm, free entry.