PIGMENT & Stone, a collaborative exhibition between North Yorkshire landscape painter Lesley Seeger and London jewellery designer Katherine Bree, will run at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, from November 5 to November 27.
In this marriage of elementals, Bree has chosen Seeger’s paintings as inspiration for her new collection of gemstone treasures.
From the seed of an idea sown by the two artists during lockdown, Pigment & Stone has grown into a celebration of form and colour with an earthy elemental twist.
“Steeped in the landscape of the Yorkshire countryside, Lesley’s paintings depict a unique interpretation of well-known places such as the Yorkshire Arboretum, Helmsley Walled Garden and the Yorkshire Wolds,” says Pyramid Gallery owner Terry Brett.
“Katherine has made pieces to reflect the colours, form and feel of these works. Paintings such as Pink Mountain and May Trees are complemented by necklaces, earrings and bracelets containing Amethyst, Serpentine and Garnets.
“Katherine divides her collections into the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – and this provides a perfect complement to Lesley’s elemental paintings, which she describes as talismans that ‘will reveal themselves over time with their rich histories of place, layers and colour’.”
Pigment & Stone promises to be a feast for both the eye and soul, promises Terry. “The earth gemstones of Tiger Eye, Malachite and Smoky Quartz are reflected in earthy paintings such as Shadow Play,” he says.
“Jewellery made from water element gemstones, such as Amazonite, Turquoise and Lapis Lazuli, is inspired by paintings such as Magic Garden and Rabbit Dale. Water element gemstones are said to be specifically linked with the season of autumn with a reputation for cleansing, healing and bringing a psychic and loving element. Best hurry along and buy your talismans now. We could all do with plenty of that ‘loving element’.”
Pigment & Stone will be launched on November 5 with an open day from 11am to 3pm. Gallery opening hours are: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; Sundays, 12 noon to 4pm; from mid-November to Christmas, 11am to 4.30pm.
LAST
weekend should have been spent visiting other people’s homes, not staying home.
This weekend too.
This is not
a cabin-fevered call for a foolhardy Trumpian dropping of the guard on
Covid-19, but a forlorn wish that York Open Studios 2020 could have been just
that: York Open Studios. Instead, they will be York Shut Studios.
Nevertheless,
in the absence of the opportunity to meet 144 artists at 100 locations,
banished by the Coronavirus lockdown,
CharlesHutchPress is determinedly championing the creativity of York’s artists
and makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, a handful of artists who now miss out on the exposure of
Open Studios are being given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art
and craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home. Home
and studio addresses will not be included at this lockdown time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows for #openwindowsyork2020, while plenty are showcasing
their work over the York Open Studios period online. Visit
yorkopenstudios.co.uk to take your own virtual tour.
The website says: “We’re
doing a Virtual Open Studios, with artists posting based on a daily theme for
the ten days spanning our two weekends. They’ll be showing you their studios
and workshops, favourite processes, answering your questions, and of course
lots of pictures of their new work.
“Search for
#YorkOpenStudios anywhere on social media or follow your favourite artists to
see more.”
First, however, here are six more artists and makers for you to discover…
Sarah Raphael-Balme, painting
SARAH makes figurative
work spanning interiors, gardens, portraits and decorative motifs usually
involving figures or creatures, painted mainly in oil, sometimes in gouache.
A graduate of Chelsea
College of Art, Sarah has shown her work widely in the UK and USA. Her
illustrations are published by IPC magazines, BBC publications, Heinneman and
countless others.
She is exhibiting solo with House of Hackney concurrently in New York and London. Go to instagram.com/raphael_balme for more.
Lesley Seeger, painting
INSPIRED by the natural world, Lesley paints landscapes and abstract florals, her lyrical work marked by an exploration of the emotional impact of colour.
“Although
all my work begins ‘in the field’ with observation, ‘painting what I see’, I
realise that it quickly becomes, ‘how what I see makes me feel’. How trees and
hills and furrow sit together in the language of light and dark,” she says.
“I’m
interested in the significance of place. This might be somewhere well known,
such as Ripon Cathedral or the White Horse at Kilburn, or a random field or
view in which the way things are placed in the landscape makes it out of the
ordinary.”
Lesley
is a self-taught artist, whose work over 23 years now has been inspired by
sculpture studies at York College, as much as by the art of Gillian Ayres,
Howard Hodgkin, Elizabeth Blackadder, Mary Fedden and Ivon Hitchens.
“At a certain point, the painting takes over and I become interested in pattern, mark making, colour and texture as vehicles of expanding what I see,” she says. “The work becomes intuitive…. a hybrid between the observed and imagined, the seen and felt.’
Born in Newcastle in 1958,Lesley studied English and Media at Southampton University, then worked in theatre and publishing and qualified as an art therapist at Sheffield Hallam University. She worked for several years in community arts in York, most notably a six-year residency at York Hospital, where she ran art projects in the renal unit.
Last year she was artist-in-residence
at the Yorkshire Arboretum, near Castle Howard; this year, she holds the same
post at Brisons Veor, Cape Cornwall.
Lesley, who runs
painting workshops, published the art book Coming Home, A Contemporary
Colourist’s Approach To English Landscape in late-2016, and also designs cards
and linen cushions. Upcoming shows pencilled in for 2020 are Art for Youth
North and Art& York, both in October.
“I like to think of my paintings as talismans,” she says. “They will reveal themselves over time with their rich histories of place, layers and colour.” Time to visit lesleyseeger.com.
Evie Leach, jewellery
EVIE decided to follow her creative passion by
studying jewellery and silversmithing at the Birmingham School of Jewellery.
There, her basic knowledge, learned from her
jeweller parents, transformed into traditional skills.
Her trademark is angular
designs with inspiration taken from geometry found in nature and architecture,
while more recent designs include semi-precious gemstones set beside angled
clusters of gold and silver to create dynamic, one-of-a-kind pieces.
Not only would PICA Studios jeweller Evie have been taking part in York Open Studios, but also her husband, self-taught artist Mick Leach, would have been making his YOS debut. Cast an eye over her designs at evieleach.co.uk.
Ric Liptrot, illustration
FREELANCE illustrator Ric
captures everyday life in York, depicting its distinctive and much-loved sites
in acrylics, pencils, collage and mono-print.
“I’m inspired by the architecture and scenes of
York,” says the PICA Studios artist. “I combine my passion for these buildings
with my support for the independent businesses York has to offer.
“I’m an ambassador for these shops, bars and cafés
and believe they’re important in helping communities grow.”
Take a look at Ric’s illustrations that “capture the places loved by the local community” at liptrotillustration.co.uk.
Katrina Mansfield, painting
KATRINA creates vivid,
fascinating “fluid art animal inks”, using alcohol ink on synthetic Yupo paper
to depict the animals, birds and insects.
The paper allows a
longer working time with the ink, “the most intriguing medium and at the same
time the most frustrating”.
“It can produce magical
results that you get lost in for hours and hours, but it can also destroy the most
striking pattern in the blink of an eye,” says Katrina. “It is exactly like
nature itself, devastatingly beautiful.”
In turn, this is why she
chose the subject of animals. “The creatures of this Earth are both fragile and
unbreakable, they are flawless and yet also imperfect. They add colour to our
human lives, yet they are increasingly in danger of becoming extinct through
our actions. This series of works is a reminder to all that we need the
diversity, beauty and intelligence of these creatures in order to survive.”
Now a PICA Studios
artist, Katrina trained in fine art and scenic art at York College, Lincoln
University and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She worked in
television, film and theatre for a decade, latterly in the West End and West
Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, before returning to York in 2018 to focus on
developing her new process of fluid art animal inks.
“The paintings take anything from one to four weeks to finish and are principally made without the use of a paintbrush,” she says. “I only use a brush if I have no other option or to place the white in the eyes; everything else is formed from the natural flow of the ink.” Animal ink magic awaits at katrinamansfieldartist.co.uk.
Kitty Pennybacker, textiles
KNITWEAR designer Kitty combines
cording, knitting, weaving and felting to create a textile collection of super-soft
homeware items, such as wall hangings, neckerchiefs, baby blankets and knee
throws.
“The work re-imagines the tartan and tweed fabrics of my childhood in North Yorkshire,” says Kitty, who gained an MA in Fashion Design and Society from Parsons School of Design, New York, after her BA in Fashion Textiles Design at the University of Brighton.
She has worked within the fields of fashion and television in New York and London and is now part of the PICA Studios art and design hub. Learn more at kittypennybacker.com.
TOMORROW: Mim Robson, Lesley Shaw, Elena Skoreyko Wagner, Ealish Wilson and Greg Winrow.