Clare Maria Wood : Woodland Angel
Most artists have an affinity with colour. As an artist myself, colour is extremely important to my world. I analyse colour as an accountant would do figures. I will give every colour a name, and it never just be blue or green to me.
I have come to realise that we see and feel colour differently and I find it fascinating to have discussions with people as to how they interpret it. I recently learnt we only see colour via the iris and that our peripheral vision is black and white!
Equally fascinating to me are dreams. As a child I was shocked to discover that we don't all dream in colour. I had assumed that, as daily life is in colour, we would all automatically see colour when alseep.
For this exhibition I have invited three artists that use colour in very different ways. For those who employ vibrant colours there can be no mistaking what colours they are using. The use of pure colour has an uplifting affect, in contrast to when colour is not used in its pure form. Sensitive or subtle colours have a calming affect in our environments.
The three exhibiting artists are -
Clare Maria Wood’s depth of colour is influenced by the rhythms of nature. She starts her day with a walk, usually in a near by woodland. She returns to her studio after intuitively collecting visual information and then expresses what she seen and felt onto her canvases. The light will inform her palette depending on the time of year.
Mary Jones : I Feel Alive
Mary Jones' dynamic ceramic heads are constructed using embedded mosaic. The features captured are of those people she has encountered while travelling. The titles are inspired by the conversations she has had or overheard. There is a playful quality to her pieces, reminding us of childhood and reflected in her direct use of materials.
Rachel Williams : Slipping the Net
New Zealand artist Rachel William’s background in printmaking informs her paintings. She redefines painting by rarely using a brush, instead preferring to use mundane objects like cardboard, acetate, cloth and bubble wrap to make unique marks. Her technique layers often-pure colour, which naturally creates other colours when overlapped and combined. Although her work reads as abstract, her inspiration is drawn from landscape and the built environment.
I am excited to put together the works of these three artists and I have enjoyed planning this exhibition, particularly as colour and the use of colour is close to my heart. I hope you will be as excited by the work as I am.