
Exhibition
Reflection Of Sky, Water, Land
Artizan are delighted to be welcoming South-West artist Bea Brookes to the gallery for the first time as we celebrate the ‘World in Landscape’ during July. Her exhibition will feature recent works inspired by where she lives in Devon, high on a hill with wide vistas taking in a large swathe of panoramic landscape. Compositions are developed from initial sketches, photographs, and repeat visits spending time to observe and start the process by creating a painting in her mind, the layout, perspective, and colour palette, before committing those thoughts to canvas. ‘Whilst some paintings seem organic – for me they rarely are- they are an interpretation of a place and often many photos I’ve take of that place. Ill sketch or paint “en plein” or come back to photos I’ve taken of a place. I’ll try to imagine what I’m aiming for and …. sometimes I succeed.’ Bea will be joined by Danielle Neill alongside in our front gallery and Ian Watson in our rear gallery with each of these artists also providing their personal interpretations of our World in Landscape.
📅 5 July - 5 August 2023
Launch
📍 Artizan Printmaking & Sculpture Gallery
⚫ Exhibition Finished
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Exhibitions
Participating Artists
Bea Brookes
I’ve drawn and painted all my life- before I could read or write. Both self-therapy and self-expression and as an only child, a pastime that was a friend and companion to while away the hours without siblings or friends when I moved to a new country. My first chosen painting mediums were watercolours due to its immediacy and quickness, in a time poor world, when later pursuing a career in hospital medicine. In recent years I’ve progressed to oils, and this is the medium I most love, for its utter malleability of form, the feeling of working with this creating a pared down chalkiness to richness and oiliness. I try to approach each painting afresh and I’m not moulded into one approach or one style. I try to stay optimistic about the outcome and I aim for a fairly loose style. I aim for a simple composition from what originally can be a complex vista with many focal points. So, I’ll spend a long time observing, re-visiting a place just watching and looking. This instinctive and under-estimated past time is a real pleasure for me. I’ll often plan in my mind, first a sketch on paper, a simple structure. I’ll create the painting in my mind first, imagining the different parts, deciding on the layout and perspective, and mixing the palette in my head. When I have a fairly good idea of that, I’ll begin to sketch it in on the canvas with thinned out burnt umber. Whilst some paintings seem organic – for me they rarely are- they are an interpretation of a place and often many photos of I’ve take of that place. Ill sketch or paint “en plein” or come back to photos I’ve taken of a place. Ill try to imagine what I’m aiming for and …. sometimes I succeed. I start with the sky- this dictates the mood. Half the canvas is often sky – I love drama in the sky, I become very excited with this part of the start of the painting- it sets the mood. I try to create movement and contrasting light with a sky coming “overhead”. For me the sky is the inner “drama-queen”. Whilst I try to keep a simple composition and have planned the most vital elements of it- the water, rock, trees, or foliage – they are often created over time with many layers of paint and many tones, varying texture, and colour. Tone, rich colour, light are all important to me - I want the painting to “feel alive “, filled with tonal light and movement – or stillness- when its needed. Currently, I’m enjoying creating paintings with dual light tones- a “yin and yang” in one piece. This is inspired from where I now live in Devon, high on a hill with wide vistas taking in a large swathe of panoramic landscape.
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A World In Landscape
Interpretating Place
Artizan are delighted to be welcoming South-West artist Bea Brookes to the gallery for the first time as we celebrate the ‘World in Landscape’ during July.
Her exhibition will feature recent works inspired by where she lives in Devon, high on a hill with wide vistas taking in a large swathe of panoramic landscape. Compositions are developed from initial sketches, photographs, and repeat visits spending time to observe and start the process by creating a painting in her mind, the layout, perspective, and colour palette, before committing those thoughts to canvas.
‘Whilst some paintings seem organic – for me they rarely are- they are an interpretation of a place and often many photos I’ve take of that place. Ill sketch or paint “en plein” or come back to photos I’ve taken of a place. I’ll try to imagine what I’m aiming for and …. sometimes I succeed.’
Bea will be joined by Danielle Neill alongside in our front gallery and Ian Watson in our rear gallery with each of these artists also providing their personal interpretations of our World in Landscape.
Exhibiting Artists