A collection of stitched and screen printed works looking at the individual within the crowd. We see people passing us in the street, on the way to work, out shopping, caught in their own thoughts. Each one carefully represented in stitch. We are transported to public spaces, an urban setting through the medium of embroidery.

Affiliated art societies and individuals display watercolours, pastels, oils, acrylics, textiles, ceramics, pottery and photography. These works will also be on show throughout the annual Garden Party day on Saturday 25th August 2012.

Join us in celebrating the 350th ‘birthday’ this year of our national puppet Mr. Punch with an exhibition drawn from his family album. Find out who his partner was before Judy, what Charles Dickens had to say about him and how he turned from bawdy Regency rascal into a Victorian family favourite. Part of The Big Grin celebrations across the country supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. “That’s the way to do it!”

Daniel’s home land is in Israel, where he trained as a Graphic Artist and has his own Studio displaying painting and photographic prints. This exciting display in acrylic draws the viewer into a rich mixture of Symbolism and Fantasy.

After serving in the Israeli Defence Force Daniel took time to travel, settling for a short time in London and Bromley, Kent where he was evolving his painterly skills, whilst studying furniture design.. Working on canvas with acrylic paint and traditional tools Daniel brings both texture and movement into his unique Symbolic and Fantastical creations.

Rebecca Strickson has created a series of prints taken from the book “I Knit Lace’ produced by I Knit London ( http://www.iknit.org.uk/ ) in 2012 and written by Gerard Allt and Jan Curchin. Each image is a fairly tale, dreamy representation of the delicate patterns by Gerry and Jan, hi-lighting the beautiful craftmanship of all involved in the project.

Rebecca Strickson’s work as an illustrator and do-er of things based in Peckham, London spans hair, women, their darker sides, and the finer details. She plays deftly with sharp drawing skills and sharper subject matters.

Recently clients include Topshop, Soho House Group and Nexus Productions.
In 2011 she was proud to have her work featured in Creative Review’s Illustration Annual, and has been selected to appear in the AOI’s Images 36 exhibition and book in 2012.

Part moonlit meadow, part sunlit wood, this exhibition transforms the New Gallery into a forest clearing. Stylized leaves, trees and blades of grass on canvas line the walls; a mural in many parts designed to be divided up and dispersed. “This is one forest you can take home with you,” Cynthia says, “one or more bits at a time”. With a background in environmental planning, Cynthia draws on her experience with landscapes around the world to convey sense impressions of space and light, using layers of coloured glazes for depth and atmosphere. Also on show are small graphite drawings from Cynthia’s Lunar Series.

Cynthia can’t help seeing an exhibition space as a whole and imagining how she could transform it. That’s what happened with The Portable Forest. “It occurred to me that the New Gallery, with its enclosed space and roof light, was not unlike a clearing in a wood,” she says. The idea of The Portable Forest was born, and Cynthia is creating all new work in response. All of the art is for sale.

Cynthia’s first exhibition of this kind was in 2007, at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, when she created “Undercurrents – Ten Views through a River of Words”; a five metre-long section through an imaginary river. Undercurrents is made up of ten canvases 120 cm high that are designed to be hung close together or spaced apart. “I like to create multi-part works of art that are linked but can be combined in different ways,” she says. “In my large paintings I try to draw the viewer right into the artwork.” She is building on what she learned from Undercurrents to create her new artworks for The Portable Forest.

As a former environmental planner, Cynthia is fascinated by scale. “I love maps, magnifiers, measuring devices and finding my way,” she says. “I think that influences how I see a space like the New Gallery. To me it’s not just four walls on which to hang paintings, but an opportunity to scale down part of the out of doors and bring it inside.”

“I paint landscapes, often in combination with buildings or man-made structures, that express the particular qualities of this part of England – its atmosphere, natural forms and history. I am drawn to strong and sometimes disturbing forms and rhythms in the landscape. Many of my pictures have a strong sense of energy flowing through them, and the perspective is often distorted. The pictures also reflect the turning year, with images inspired by the different seasons.” Colin Anderson

The turning landscape
Colin Anderson paints landscapes in oils and acrylic, often in combination with buildings or man-made structures. He has been painting seriously for five years now and his work has increasingly featured in exhibitions across Kent.
The particular qualities of this part of England – its atmosphere, natural forms and history – have provided the inspiration for his work. He does not aim to produce a completely realistic representation however, but to bring out the intrinsic drama and mystery of particular places.  A twisted farm gate, a bizarre beach shelter framed by towering clouds, a flaming autumn tree – these are some of the worlds he explores.
Many of his pictures have a sense of energy flowing through them, and the perspective is often distorted – so that the viewer may feel disoriented and challenged. The pictures also reflect the turning year, with images inspired by the different seasons – from dancing catkins to deep chill of a winter river.

“My paintings are the result of repeated returns to the same beaches in West Cornwall.  They are not generic or generalised, rather they record the exact detail of a particular incident of topography, weather and tide.  Many of the paintings centre on a wave on the point of breaking, which I see as a metaphor for the fragile glory of human existence.  My aim is to communicate an intensity of experience that creates permanence out of the fleeting moment.” Karen Birt

For me, painting comes out of a desire to intensify the experience of the present moment.
To create something permanent out of a fleeting experience.

In all of my work I aim to bring to the subject a deep knowledge of its substance: bone structure in portraits, the physics of waves in my seascapes. The paintings, whether of people, waves or landscapes are not generic or generalised, rather they record the exact detail of light and form. For this reason I return again and again to the same beaches in West Cornwall and have made repeated paintings of some of my sitters. In all cases I supplement the immediacy of my drawings with dozens of photographs.
Despite this common starting point, the portraits and the seascapes use differing techniques in response to the subjects, as seen by me.

My portraits are in oil on canvas and built up layer by layer in response to sittings in my studio using a technique that creates the most three-dimensional effect possible, in order to convey in paint the experience of being in the presence of that one person. By focussing on and expressing the sitter’s unique qualities, I seek to find a way to communicate the experience, which is common to all of us: the strong and direct recognition of the presence of another person.
In contrast, my seascapes in acrylic on canvas or paper take a single, unrepeatable event of weather and tide conditions in a particular place and by celebrating this exact detail aim to convey the quality of that moment to the viewer.

Many of the seascapes centre on a wave on the point of breaking. I have always been fascinated by natural processes. The way in which a wave builds energy far out in the ocean, manifests itself in a glorious configuration of light and colour and then crashes onto the shore, releasing its energy back into the world, seems to me a tender metaphor for the glory and fragility of human existence.
Having first trained as a scientist, I was awarded my MA in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art in 2003. Karen Birt

‘We are a group of Kent and Sussex based contemporary visual artists and have chosen to explore printmaking, using techniques such as monotype, linocut, collagraph, photography and digital imaging. The exhibition includes prints on paper, fabric and other media with some artists taking prints as the source material, using them as a starting point.  Other exhibits are the plates produced in the printing process, as artworks in their own right.’

THE VIEW – Under Pressure

The View is a group of Kent and Sussex based contemporary visual artists who work in a wide variety of 2D and 3D media, including oil, acrylic, photography and digital imaging, video, audio, print, textiles and wood.

For this exhibition, The View has chosen to explore printmaking.  Some artists in the group use traditional techniques such as monotype, linocut and collagraph and others work with photography, digital imaging and solar plate etching.  A number of artists use several processes to produce hybrid prints and others take prints as the source material, using them as the starting point for their work.  The exhibition includes prints on paper, fabric and other media.

Recent exhibitions include The Tunnel Gallery at Tonbridge School.

Please visit our website http://theartistsview.moonfruit.com/ to see more of our work.

Sharon Hall Shipp
Originally from Staffordshire, I have been living in the south east since 1985.  I have been taking photographs for over 30 years but in the last five years, since studying fine art at K College in Tonbridge, I have expanded my art practice into other media, including printmaking and 3D.  One major strand of work is based on combining my own photographs with found images and using digital mark making techniques, to create and combine many layers.  My principal interests centre on domestic and office interiors and the architecture of garages, shops and the commonplace.  In this exhibition I am showing work based on images of abandoned cold war and nuclear bunkers.  More of my work can be seen at www.sharonhallshipp.co.uk

Linda Pocock
I live and work in Tunbridge Wells with my husband and three lively teenage children.
My art practice is chiefly concerned with organic forms and marks left by man.  I use a wide range of media which include photography, collage, textiles, printmaking and mark making using inks, corrosives and burning.

Jean Carus
I was bought up in East Kent and enjoyed studying art to A level.  I left the rural life to train to be a paediatric nurse in London where I continued to work until having a family. Art was on the back burner for many years until I returned to nursing and realised it was time for a change.  Adult Education led on to a Foundation Degree at my local college where I was lucky to meet my fellow colleagues.  I am glad I made the change!

Liz Chamberlain
Born in Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells, I have lived in Kent ever since. I have studied on various courses over the years ranging from ceramics to silver jewellery making and recently spent four years at K College in Tonbridge studying Fine Art.  The main subject areas of my work have been my family and the surrounding countryside of my home near Sevenoaks, Kent. I am interested in experimenting with processes and have produced work in various media such as glass, clay and plaster.  My most recent interest is printing and have produced work using methods such as collagraphs, monoprint, lino and reduction lino. When making collagraph prints, occasionally I find that instead of using the prints as the end product, I have gone on to exhibit the plates as final pieces, some of which you can see in this exhibition.  I very much enjoy being part of the group of artists called ‘The View’ who work and exhibit together.

A range of giclee prints by Mike Yates and Nicolette Shipton.  Contemporary, semi-abstract artwork based on photographs taken on travels through Europe in 2010 and 2011. The subject matter ranges from nature and flora to man-made and industrial.

Pickford Studios – European Odyssey: A Seasonal Journey.

This exhibition is representative of Mike and Nicolette’s key artistic principles – abstraction in nature; strength and vulnerability of man-made objects.  The collection also reflects our love of Europe.

Mike Yates studied art and design at Cornwall College of Art way back in the early 80′s.  He has had a successful career as a civil servant but has also produced abstract photographic artwork for many years on a semi-professional basis.  Mike and Nicolette recently established a company called Pickford Studios producing high quality, contemporary, limited-edition prints for domestic customers, but also for the hotel, restaurant, office and interior design trades.