Jane Ford
Grandmaster of Fine Art
With an all consuming passion for British Wildlife combined with quirky, dark, Northern sense of humour, the main subject of the painting is transformed from a natural pose into a completely obscure and unusual setting.
Having a natural leaning towards the gothic genre which includes Victorian engines, optical and astronomical instruments and even Medieval inventions to add to the mix.
The paintings all tell a story, a very old fashioned way of painting, so each work can have several connotations, from Game birds alighting on pies to Hares transfixed by melancholia and chickens alluring foxes, all in a humorous framework. Perhaps stemming from a childhood mixture of Brer Rabbit, Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe and the Goons, with a splash of 1940's film noir and 60's/70's music.
Each painting is carefully researched for anatomical, historical and natural accuracy and finally worked using the finest quality oils suspended in distilled Walnut oil for added viscosity. A technique reminiscent of the traditional way of English painting not usually taught now in Art Schools. This method of painting lends itself ideally to the work.
The great diversity of British Wildlife and the imagination of connecting birds and animals with unrelated objects and each other opens up endless possibilities for paintings.
The whole is brought together with the naming of the work.... it's all in the title.
Gavin Roweth
Having attended Ravensbourne and Chelsea art colleges in the 1980s, Gavin turned to sculpting full time in 2005, inspired by stone carving workshops at Tout Quarry, Portland.
In 2012 he opened Wing art gallery in Wadhurst, East Sussex to promote the talentof local artists.
Carving directly into the stone, Gavin creates simple and complex abstract forms designed around the intrinsic nature of the material. The marks where life on the planet has left fossils embedded in the stone often become essential parts of the finished piece. He looks to create harmony between stone and sculptor where texture and form lead to the finished piece.
His latest sculptures (the 'Solar' series) are designed to work with the sun, using it to cast shadows across the stone and surrounding area.
Of his work Gavin says, "I mainly use Portland stone due to its superb light reflective properties”.
