Contemporary Masters from the East of England
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Contemporary Masters from the East of England Seabrook Press Contemporary Masters from the East of England The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk 25th April to 27th May 2017 Seabrook Press Susan Gunn In her studio, 2014 Contents Alphabetical Index of Artists 3 Introductory Essay 5 The Paintings 11 Thanks 83 Enabled with the generous support of the East Anglia Art Fund Amanda Ansell Debbie Ayles Claudia Böse Emma Cameron Simon Carter Ben Coode-Adams Tony Casement Jenny Creasy Jeffrey Dennis Sam Douglas Annabel Dover Nathan Eastwood Wendy Elia Paul Galyer Susan Gunn Marguerite Horner Barbara Howey Linda Ingham Anushka Kolthammer Paula MacArthur Michael Middleton Nicholas Middleton Stephen Newton Laura Leahy Kirsty O’Leary Leeson Gideon Pain Ruth Philo Robert Priseman Freya Purdue David Sullivan Harvey Taylor Delia Tournay-Godfrey Julie Umerle Jemma Watts Mary Webb Cover Image: Divided Ground: Acid Yellows, linseed oil, wax, natural earth pigment and gesso on canvas, 91 x 91 cm, 2012 by Susan Gunn. Cover Photograph by Alan Ward The Cut, 8 New Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk, IP19 8BY [email protected] 01986 873285 Cafe and Galleries open Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm 1 Amanda Ansell in her studio 2 Photograph by Simon Carter, Suffolk, 2014 Alphabetical Index of Artists Amanda Ansell 12 Debbie Ayles 14 Claudia Böse 16 Emma Cameron 18 Simon Carter 20 Ben Coode-Adams 22 Tony Casement 24 Jenny Creasy 26 Jeffrey Dennis 28 Sam Douglas 30 Annabel Dover 32 Nathan Eastwood 34 Wendy Elia 36 Paul Galyer 38 Susan Gunn 40 Marguerite Horner 42 Barbara Howey 44 Linda Ingham 46 Anushka Kolthammer 48 Paula MacArthur 50 Michael Middleton 52 Nicholas Middleton 54 Stephen Newton 56 Laura Leahy 58 Kirsty O’Leary Leeson 60 Gideon Pain 62 Ruth Philo 64 Robert Priseman 66 Freya Purdue 68 David Sullivan 70 Harvey Taylor 72 Delia Tournay-Godfrey 74 Julie Umerle 76 Jemma Watts 78 Mary Webb 80 3 Contemporary Masters from the East of England Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title curated by Robert Priseman The Cut, 8 New Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk, United Kingdom 25 April – 27 May 2017 Copyright © Priseman-Seabrook.org Copyright © of the images remain with the Artists Text by Robert Priseman with statements made by the artists in their own words. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this book may be reproduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright holders and the publisher of this book. Published in 2017 by The Seabrook Press 4 Introductory Essay 5 Simon Carter in his studio 6 Photograph by Noah Carter, Frinton-on-Sea, 2014 Contemporary Masters from the East of England Historically the East of England has nurtured some of Britain’s greatest painters, from Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable in the 18th and 19th centuries to Christopher Le Brun and Maggi Hambling in the 20th. It has seen the establishment of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End by Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines in 1939, whose students included Lucian Freud and Valerie Thornton and the Norwich School of Design in 1845 whose alumni include Michael Andrews, Colin Self and Susan Gunn. This level of excellence in the art of painting from the eastern region of the United Kingdom has continued to evolve and grow into the 21st century with a new wave of painters who have made the area their home and the production of internationally significant painting their life’s work. Contemporary Masters from the East of England showcases a number of these new and emerging artists of both national and international significance, displaying work by John Moores Prize winner Nicholas Middleton, 54th Venice Biennale exhibitor Marguerite Horner, East London Painting Prize Winner Nathan Eastwood, Kettle’s Yard exhibitor Amanda Ansell, Leverhulme Trust awardee David Sullivan, Digswell Arts Fellow Freya Purdue and Mary Webb who received a solo show at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in 2011, amongst many others. In defining the “East of England” I have sought to select works mainly produced in the heart of the region as it is widely known, that being Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and I have also cast the net further afield and included paintings produced in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Kent and Lincolnshire. This ties in more broadly with the way the eastern region of England is represented by the BBC, commercial television companies and the Arts Council. 7 By using the term “masters” I aim to make a claim here that the many of the more interesting British artists practicing painting today are producing work which is being made at or approaching the highest level, and many of them, like their historical predecessors, hail from the eastern region of England. But something else also emerges from the use of the word “master” which is interesting; that up to the end of the 20th century, art production and display has been dominated by men. Now however we are witnessing many more women artists coming to the fore as exceptional painters. Indeed, in this small selection of 35 paintings, 21 are by women, placing male artists very much in the minority. Is it correct then to refer to women artists as “masters’” which at first glance seems to be a gendered term? In the Cambridge English Dictionary a “masterpiece” is defined as “a work of art such as a painting, film, or book that is made with great skill” while in the Oxford English Dictionary the term “master” is described as “a person who has complete control of something”. Both of these definitions refer to “master” in a gender neutral manner, in the same way one might gain a “Master’s degree”, and which indicates the term “mistress” as being the gendered expression. Whilst language is always in flux and we may never find a completely satisfactory answer to this particular quandary, it is very much in this gender neutral spirit that I wish us to consider this exhibition. There is also something else I wish us to consider in looking at the works themselves, that just as there has been a major shift in fine art practice from male to female dominance, there is now also a shift occurring in the way painting is being perceived as an art form in the light of the digital age. Painting, at the beginning of the 21st century is now expressing itself along the same lines as the slow food movement, meditation and unplugged music. It offers a direct and contemplative connection with the “hand-made” and with real objects which mediate our emotional makeup as people. We see this most clearly in the fact that the works presented here display no clear and consistent group narrative or movement, and are instead a collection of highly individualistic interpretations which offer visual interactions with the physical world. Gone now are the multitude of “isms” which made up the landscape of 20th century art, instead they have been replaced by the one big “ism” of the 21st century, “individualism”. In the light of this we may begin to think of, and experience the 8 paintings presented here, not as works of art produced from the hands of specifically female or male artists, but from a group of individuals; unique, talented and united by the common bonds of time and place and a desire to connect to the elusive experience of what it is to be human through the medium of paint. Robert Priseman 2017 Contemporary Masters from the East of England draws 35 works from the Priseman Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting which is housed in North Essex. It is the only art collection in the United Kingdom dedicated to painting produced in Britain after the year 2000. 8 10 Paintings 11 Amanda Ansell Amanda Ansell studied at the Norwich School of Art and Design (BA Hons 1995 – 1998) and The Slade School of Fine Art, London (MFA 1998 – 2000). After studying and painting in London for seven years, she returned to her native Suffolk in 2006 to begin an artist residency at firstsite, Colchester. That same year a body of her work was selected for exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. In her more recent work the expression of intuition and emotion is combined with her use of repetition, a limited palette and references to nature. However abstracted her pictures become, the reconstituted image is not far from stirring up memories of landscape and the synthesis between place and experience. She describes her work as being “interested in a sense of place, watery places, the interrelation between the familiar and the changeable: how I can represent this sensibility either through the language of painting or through a concept which is developed and represented in a series of paintings.” Amanda’s paintings are held in many public and private collections and she currently lives and works in Suffolk. 12 Rock 13 45 x 60 cm, Oil on canvas, 2008 Debbie Ayles Debbie Ayles studied fine art at The Colchester School of Art. In 2004 she was granted a sciart Research and Development award by The Wellcome Trust to investigate ‘Aversion to Contemporary Art’, in collaboration with Professor Arnold Wilkins, Director of Visual Perception Unit at the University of Essex. Then, in 2005 Debbie won 1st prize in the ‘Art meets Science’ award in the Daily Telegraph /Novartis ‘Vision of Science’ Photographic Awards. Her work has also been selected for exhibition by the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, the Royal Institute of Painters In Water Colour, the Royal Watercolour Society, The London Group, The New English Art Club, ING Discerning Eye and the Science Museum.