Looking Forward – Spring Mixed Show

Upstairs at The Art Shop

Drawings and paintings rooted in landscape by Ann Johnson; oil studies lost in the minutiae of a single view of nature by Flora McLachlan; the familiar, unknown and primitive are conjured up in Sophie Wake’s paintings; and simplicity of form, rawness, texture are explored in Ania Perkowska’s ceramics.

ANN JOHNSON – From a background in journalism and animal advocacy Ann has discovered new ways of articulating a love of words, of drawing and painting and the natural world. She never includes human figures in her work saying, ‘I prefer to simply suggest evidence of human habitation. Abandoned garden forks, bits of trellis and buildings in stages of disintegration contribute not only exciting and contrasting marks to a composition, these also project mysteries and stories of the past inhabitants.’

FLORA MCLACHLAN – ‘I work intuitively and without an end in sight. This series of paintings was begun looking out of my studio window up a bank covered in vegetation growing so luxuriantly that it was pressing against the glass. I had no view so I started instinctively looking into the mass of growth to find small ways in to some kind of distance.’  Flora is a lecturer in Fine Art at Aberystwyth University.

SOPHIE WAKE – ‘I graduated from Brighton University, with a BA Hons in Graphic Design / Illustration and worked for many years as a busy freelance illustrator. Today, my fine art practice is suffused with my spiritual practice. Influences of shamanism, rock art, ancient clay models and pottery are channeled throughout the collections, celebrating the power of raw basic human emotion in simple and authentic forms.’

ANIA PERKOWSKA – Ania is a London based ceramic artist. She creates functional pieces inspired by contrasts and opposites. Growing up as a child in communist Poland, Ania’s life was underpinned by stark grey concrete structures. Her work draws from the rawness, seeking beauty in simplicity of the form, tactility of the texture. She uses geometric forms, minimalistic decoration and natural qualities of the materials.