From 1983-85 he attended the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.
For the last seven years he has lived in Dorset and exhibits regularly at Cadogan Contemporary in London.
In her sculpture she reflects the dichotomy of our inner lives; a woman needing a creative life, maybe, yet fearing her ability to give her children all they need as well. The anomalies of the world around us; The ‘have and have-nots'. The innocent victims of conflict. And, in a lighter mood, the exuberance of a youth on a skateboard.
Her strengths lie with the figure, which she has drawn and sculpted for more than 40 years. Though, in two dimensions she also has the journey into landscape and context.
Greta Berlin has exhibited throughout England and has work in many public places and private collections.
Grew up in rural Dorset, her nascent talents encouraged by an artistic family with a strong work ethic. Her degree in Manchester encouraged a completely independent approach, with an almost total lack of formal tuition. During this time she painted intuitively, spending much time out of the studio, swimming against the tide of convention; taking sketchbook and canvases and working wherever the subject happened to be, no matter how challenging or uncomfortable this proved. She learned to look, rather than learned to paint and it was the strength of those pictures that earned her place in the Slade’s Figurative Studio. Her paints and brushes scornfully binned, she was sent by tutor Euan Uglow to buy sable brushes, lead primer, linen canvas to stretch, a plumb-line, and 'artist quality' paint. For three years she worked from the model, a complete contrast, where tuition was intense, rigorous and academic.
Now living and working on the Dorset coast, she continues uncompromising about painting in situ. Her landscapes and seascapes are painted, from start to finish, on the spot - with the view in front of her. Following a diagnosis, surgery and aggressive therapies, she began in 2010 to draw and paint women with Breast Cancer for a solo exhibition ‘Breast Cancer LIFE’ to launch in Plush in September this year and then tour in Dorset and around the UK.
Paintings in many private and corporate collections including NatWest Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, The Jerwood Foundation, Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health, The Tresco Estate and the Russel Cotes Museum, Bournemouth. 2010 exhibition programme includes Kent Art Fair, Art Stable Dorset, Tresco, Isles of Scilly (Visiting Artist), art@plush 7, Hampshire Art Fair.
www.harrietbarber.com
Based in Saltash, Cornwall, Jenny's ceramics are made primarily from porcelain and you could call them cartoons - it is certainly true that they are intended to be funny or at the least ironic !
Her figures are extremely delicate and highly detailed observations of life – mainly the funnier side of our obsession with fashion. Her inspiration is to go shopping, read Vogue or eat out “I’m sure everyone understands that one must suffer for ones art… To cut a long story short – have we got our priorities right ? To what extent is our visual impact on each other conditioning success, failure, power balance, money, acceptance and a whole lot of other invisible things besides. What about gender and can sex still be used as a weapon ? And what about religion ? – Why go to church when you can go shopping - more reliable, more satisfying & less tricky on the conscience. Hurrah ! On the other hand, what about poverty, debt, anorexia and obesity - are social pressures to conform in some measure responsible ? Is human consumption of desirable, yet largely unnecessary, consumables out of control ? Too many questions perhaps.”
Her work concentrates on
Shoes, Handbags and Knickers – fickle fashion if you can afford it ?
Plates – too much food, too little food – so much waste ?
Washing Line & Laundry - our collective conscience hung out to dry for all to see
People – always observing and judging each other – not always kind, rarely generous, frequently self satisfied and therefore, often funny …
www.ceramics-etc.co.uk
Matthew designs in response to a client’s brief in the commissioned work and in response to his own brief in our speculative pieces. The crossover of these journeys is the engine of his creativity.
Matthew is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. He is also a Trustee of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen
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Sometimes working in watercolour, charcoal, or making prints, Phyllis' preferred medium is oil on canvas. Most of her work is figurative: portraits, still lifes and of course landscapes.
Phyllis is a vibrant colourist, with a fluent handling of her material somewhat reminiscent of Kokoschka, though she would probably say that she owes more to Matisse.
