A History in Layers

May 19th – July 3rd
Thurs – Sun 11am-5pm

An exhibition of paintings prints and ceramics in which the process of layering is an important means by which the artists gain a rich, varied and exciting surface in their work.

Sam Lock
Each painting is an exploration, a journey between and through layers, a build-up of moments in time and intuitions followed.  The alchemy of the painting process transforms time spent into a physical and tangible history that can be read as colour, texture, shape, structure; a visual poetry. They are incomplete, like memories half recalled, stories with no fixed ending, open-ended.   They whisper suggestions, hints, intrigues….. each piece a mystery to be solved, a contradiction that is at once solid and substantial yet elusive, fleeting.
Sam Lock trained at Edinburgh University and Art College, graduating with an MA Fine Art Painting and MA History of Art in 1997.

Sam Lock
More like falling

Sam Lock
Of Empty Greens

Michelle Keegan
Michelle’s work begins with place. Locations are selected for their familiarity or chosen by tracing where family members worked and originated from. This personal mapping begins with drawing in situ and the final image worked through the processes of etching.
Michelle graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1990. In 2015 she won the Flourish Award for Excellence in Printmaking.

Michelle Keegan 1

Michelle Keegan 2

Bren Head
Layering is an essential part of the development and evaluation of Bren’s paintings. Through a repeated process of creation and destruction layers are obscured or partially removed and reworked. The paint and the surface dictate what appears, chance scratches and fractures, changes in colour, cracks and eroded layers alter the subjects identity and significance.
Bren has recently been shortlisted for the Biscuit Factory – Open Contemporary  Portrait Award.

Bren Head
White Block 10

Bren Head
Woman on The Moor

Tony Laverick

Tony aims to achieve layers of interest in his work through the use of colour, texture and form. Precise linear shapes are complimented with areas of loose painterly decoration. Each piece is individually designed and thrown using a specially prepared black porcelain. They are then fired to 1260º with subsequent lustre firings at lower temperature.

Tony has been making ceramics for 30 years including working as a designer in the ceramics industry for Wedgwood and Coalport China. His work is exhibited and collected nationally and internationally.

Tony Laverick 3

Libby Ward

Libby’s design approach to jewellery making is based on experimental methodologies, By manipulating processes by adding materials, etching, coating, layering, stretching, electroforming, heating and also breaking Libby creates unique pieces of jewellery.
Libby was selected recently of the Crafts Council Hothouse scheme for emerging artists.

Libby Ward – Pins

Libby Ward – Ring