Shirley has always made things since childhood, sewing dolls clothes or making things from found natural forms such as sea shells. She has been a designer, educator, craft maker, gallery owner and for almost fifteen years maker/artist showing work in galleries around the UK. She feels painting and ceramics overlap in the way she treats the surfaces, with a search for depth and a sense of herself. Her practise has tended to produce playful component pieces combined with found materials, assemblages inspired by creatures, birds and plants. It is now developing into larger scale semi abstract hand built sculptural ceramic forms and paintings.
Shirley’s art education background and initial design career was in textile/surface decoration, studying at Chester college for a foundation course and Leicester Polytechnic for a BA Hon’s, graduating in 1987. Self taught in ceramics, she works from a light filled studio in her home, which has been featured in publications including the The Observer Magazine and is situated near the east coast english seaside town of Filey. She also has a separate smaller painting studio which does not stop her producing larger scale works. An important part of her surroundings is the coast and her garden which is continuously being developed and evolving, full of many interesting plants selected for form, texture rather than prettiness, many of which are used within her work.
The work has evolved over a long period of time, in the background of her more commercial work. After the experience of lockdown, with more time to experiment and freedom to think about ideas, this has led to hand built sculptures and assemblages in stoneware and porcelain clay, with found materials. With the luxury of more time to appreciate peace and nature, allowing thinking space to the stages of development, it is very much reflected in how the pieces have evolved.
The work is now moving forward with more personal expression, still taking inspiration from her surroundings focusing on balance of shapes, pushing materials further and her own emotion reactions to them. Exploring surfaces, playing with found materials, different clays and paint all with the emphasis on looking at the different relationships of form, texture and colour. Also thinking about the wider context of nature on our planet, the strength and fragility of nature.
Mhairi McGregor RSW was born in Paisley in 1971. She studied under and was greatly influenced by James Robertson and Barbara Rae at Glasgow School of Art, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 1993.
Throughout her career, McGregor has travelled extensively, spending time painting and exhibiting painted throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA, as well as finding constant inspiration in her native Scotland, where she is currently based. She has lived and worked for various lengths of time in Italy, France, Spain, the USA, Canada and, favourite of all, Australia.
Mhairi’s paintings are included in many prestigious public and private collections such as, The Royal Scottish Academy, Fleming Holdings and Aberdeen University as well as private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Germany and Portugal.
After completing a BA (Hons) in Illustration at the University of the West of England, Ruth has continued to evolve and hone her unique monoprint technique. She has continued to develop her work at Spike Print Studio in Bristol, making variable editions of dry-point etchings and relief prints.
Early in her career she was shortlisted for the Emerging Artist award at the Royal West of England Academy Open exhibition and won the Society of Graphic Fine Art’s Best Work in Colour. Ruth has gone on to have work exhibited in prestigious print exhibitions at the Atkinson Gallery in Somerset, The Shire Hall in Stafford and in open competitions at well-regarded venues such as the RWA.
In recent years I’ve taken part in a year long print residency at the University of the West of England’s print department and a group residency at Lizard Point in Cornwall resulting in exhibitions in London and Helston.
Ruth describes her inspiration as follows:
‘My inspiration is landscape, nature and light- often in North Somerset, the Severn Estuary, Dorset and Wiltshire- the places I know and love best, but also sometimes far away places I’ve travelled to. My motivation is to express the way I feel about these places- they move me and I want to move others.’
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RSVPThe starting point for the prints presented in this solo exhibition was a series of walks by Jason Hicklin between 2020-23 in London, Pembrokeshire and North Yorkshire. All are walks that border water.
The most recent walk (summer 2023) was that on the North Yorkshire coast, from the dramatic Bempton cliffs to the sandy beach at Filey. This walk resulted in seven completely new prints, including a beautiful quadriptych which will be on display for the first time here at Watermark Gallery.
The prints from The Thames are from two bodies of works; The River: Part One and Two. Both were based on walks from Hammersmith to North Greenwich.
The Pembrokeshire etchings were made in 2021 and are based on a walk on Ramsey Island, a boat trip to Skomer Ialdns and a costal walk from St David’s Head to Strumble Head.
All of Jason’s work starts outdoors with a sketchbook which then informs the etchings made back in the studio. Carrying the minimum of equipment, he will walk and climb the desired area for days and sometimes nights, often in extreme weather. He describes working outdoors in these tense and exciting conditions as a tremendously connecting experience – feeling a part of the land itself.
The result is a striking record of the elemental collisions between earth, sea and weather. Jason conveys the bleak essence of driving rain, when the mist closes down and masters the polarities of bright skies and shadowed rocks. His work is charged with an atmosphere born of an intimate knowledge of the landscape and a direct physical experience of its changing moods.
Read more about Jason and watch his film here.
My initial starting point is to collect on the spot sketches, subjects will vary from harbour coastal scenes to street and market scenes and the occasional still life. I am selective when describing detail, I want to portray only the essence of the subject.
Back in the studio I start my paintings, (surfaces can include, paper, board and canvas), with layers of paper collage, newspapers, tissue, leaflets, magazines etc, glueing with acrylic medium.
I create shapes which relate to the abstract structure of the subject. When the glue is dry, I apply acrylic ink in bold random strokes which encourages wonderful colour and textural ‘happy accidents’. From this state of chaos I endeavour to define the subject through various drawing techniques, to a finished stage where the subject has recognisable passages, but at the same time retain a semi- abstract, impressionistic feel, engaging the viewers imagination.
I now paint almost exclusively in mixed media, combining collage, acrylics and pastel. I enjoy the way textures, shapes, colour and ‘happy accidents’ steer the direction of my paintings. My favourite subjects continue to be harbour scenes, market and street scenes both in Britain and abroad.
Mike Bernard is exhibiting 30 paintings in his new solo show Yorkshire and Beyond here at Watermark Gallery from 27 October to 11 November 2023. View the exhibition here.
Janine Baldwin is a full member of the Pastel Society who is based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Janine has been represented by Watermark Gallery since its inception and we have seen her reputation grow consistently. Janine is a regular volunteer for the North Yorkshire National Park and her love and knowledge of the North York Moors is clearly evident throughout her work.
This new body of work explores the wild ruggedness of the North Yorkshire landscape, especially along the coastline and out on higher ground, in which fast changing weather conditions bring about interesting combinations of light and mood. The beauty of overgrown places quietly reclaimed by nature is central to these new pieces.
Watch Janine talk to owner of Watermark Gallery, Liz Hawkes about the exhibition below.
You can also read about Janine’s work for the North Yorks National Park here.
