Brian Sinfield Art Gallery
'Flowers and Landscapes'
Elsa Taylor 16 March 2024 - 10 April 2024
We are very excited to introduce you to ‘Flowers and Landscapes’. Thirty new oil paintings by Elsa Taylor marking her eighth solo exhibition with the gallery.
Elsa is well known for being a colourist, and her use of intense colour is immediately apparent in both her still-life flower paintings and landscapes. Flowers feature strongly in this exhibition and are so visually pleasing, whether it be with a simple brush stroke, or with a free hand, or a palette knife, she is able to experiment with shapes, and then with that defining touch of colour, the subject is illuminated against its background. Elsa’s flower paintings, at times semi-abstract, are more celebrations of colour, design and texture, capturing the intrinsic character of the subject rather than a slavish depiction of the flowers themselves.
In Elsa’s landscape paintings we find layers of rich colour and texture which combine to depict the natural landscape and with the occasional village or hill house her impressionistic compositions evoke an emotional response. The Cotswolds have been a strong influence, as has the different landscapes of Cornwall, Scotland and Italy.
Elsa gathers inspiration from wide open spaces as well the solitary object or a single flower standing on its own, but in all cases she expresses her subject matter in colour and with a range of shapes that verge on the abstract.
Due to popular demand, this beautiful exhibition 'Flowers and Landscapes' will continue until 10th April 2024.
To view all available paintings by Elsa please click here
Easter Opening Hours
The gallery will be open as usual on Good Friday and Easter Saturday, 10am - 5pm, and closed on Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. However, if you would like to make an appoinment on either of these days please contact Helen on 07503 526715.
Featured Artist
Anthony Murphy
Anthony Murphy, born in Buenos Aires, is an Argentinian-born English painter with strong Irish connections. He has lived and worked near Carcassonne, France since 1992.
Anthony attended Westminster School in London and during his teenage years enjoyed success as an actor, receiving an Emmy award for best actor in the starring role of ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’. The artist then went on to become a lawyer working in both Britain and France before becoming a painter full time, exhibiting on a regular basis over the last 30 years.
Simplistic in structure, Anthony Murphy’s paintings allow the two-dimensional canvas to dominate the forms of the composition, reflecting an exploration of space. With a strong tonal palette, the artist chooses an array of subjects from townscapes to still life to people engaging in everyday activity.
“Trial and error are my great masters. A painting is nothing more or less than a series of brush strokes; and each stroke one may say, if you like it, leave it, if you don’t wipe it off”.
Anthony mainly paints in oil and pastel and is known predominantly for his French and Irish scenes. His colourful Gauginesque paintings have become highly desirable.
Painting shown here: L'Embrasse | oil on canvas | 38 x 55 cm
To view all available work by Anthony please click here
New In
New Work Just In
Dr PJ Crook MBE (RWA MAFA FRSA)
Born in Cheltenham, where she still lives, PJ studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design which was eventually absorbed by the University where she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts in 2010 and in 2011 an MBE for services to art in the Queen's Birthday Honours. She is represented by galleries in London, New York, Paris and Toronto, as well as here in the Cotswolds, and her work is in major public, corporate and private collections in many parts of the world, principally in Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, England and the United States of America. Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery; Imperial War Museum; Morohashi Museum of Modern Art; Standard Chartered Bank; Centrica; Paul Allen; the Marquess of Bath; the late Jackie Collins and Toyah Willcox are among those who have works in their collections.
From a studio opposite her house, she manages compositions on a monumental scale - paintings can measure 2 x 4.5 metres and paints small pictures, some no larger than 10 cm square. She works in tinted gesso, acrylic and sometimes in oil on canvas, or on a corrugated wood support, which gives a three-dimensional effect to her work, as does her practice of incorporating the frame within the composition. A recurring theme within her work is crowd interaction and some of these paintings have been used as covers for King Crimson's recent albums.
PJ is a Patron of the National Star College, Cheltenham; a Trustee and Director of ACS (the Artists Collecting Society); President of the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum; a Gloucestershire Ambassador; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; member of the Royal West of England Academy (and sometime member of its Council); Manchester Academy of Fine Art; Chelsea Arts Club and the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire.
We are fortunate enough to have had the pleasure of representing PJ for many years.
To view all available work by PJ please click here