Brian Sinfield Art Gallery
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Antonia Black
Antonia Black's Portrait of Cézanne, Post-Impressionist French painter Paul Cézanne is best known for his incredibly varied painting style, which greatly influenced 20th century abstract art.
Antonia Black’s paintings radiate her own vivacity. Lively, spontaneous - she paints with passion, mostly outdoors, often with big sheets of heavy watercolour paper laid directly on the ground. Always colourful and exuberant they reflect the artist’s own irrepressible personality. A born colourist, the daughter and granddaughter of artists, Antonia’s life seems to revolve around colour and sunlights, the tricks it can play and the wild ways in which it can capture the imagination. Born in Perth, Western Australia, she moved to Sydney with her family in 1959 and studied at the National Art School. She then moved to England in 1960 and spent five years at the Slade, and studied under Sir William Coldstream, with tutors William Townsend and Jeffrey Camp. Her greatest influence, however, was Frank Auerbach with whom she worked for two years. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including First Prize at the RBSA Open Watercolour Competition and her work is in major collections both private and corporate in many parts of the world.
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. To view all available paintings please click here
Featured Artist
Iona Sanders
Born in the far west of Cornwall, Iona Sanders grew up on the Cape, and its striking landscape has a strong and continuing presence in her work. While not wishing to project a 'Cornish' image, Sanders recognises the great heritage of the land she draws from and is extremely proud of, as she says, "it's within me".
Coming from an artistic background, Sanders has said she simply can't imagine not creating. She has developed her style organically while studying then raising a family, and through much dedication and artistic development, is now established in her practice, working between two studios.
She is highly responsive to her surroundings, selecting objects form her everyday environment and imbuing them with a quietly observed dignity and grace of form. The objects chosen speak about the artist's life as much as she conveys their reality to the viewer. Sanders establishes a minimal composition; a single cup is elevated to sole subject, its character defined, and its simplicity expanded. In the absence of extra subject matter, she is free to explore the intimate scene. Basic formal components like line and tone are fully realised and Sanders' use of colour-balancing muted tones with brilliant primaries is highly adept. There is a bold naivety to her paintings that shows a confidently developed style, and her work is saturated with a warm vibrancy even when a cool palette dominates. Rarely have such quiet pictorial scenes fizzed with energy.
Image illustrated: Hydrangea and Pears | oil on canvas | 120 x 120 cm
Exhibition
Miles Cole Exhibition 8 September - 21 September 2019
An expressive abstract painter, Miles Cole was born in 1965. He studied Fine Art at Gloucester College of Art and the Chelsea School of Art. His early career was spent working as an illustrator with regular commissions from various periodicals such as The Economist, The Times Educational Supplement, Tatler, the Mail on Sunday and many others. In 2010, after a successful career as an illustrator, he returned to painting after a fifteen-year hiatus. His work is rooted in the tradition of British and European post-war Modernism, particularly abstract painting, He says of his work: "The interconnecting lines found in these paintings are a catalyst for what then becomes a sensual engagement with the materials - deconstructing and reconstructing shapes into various compositions until a point of departure from the subject matter has been reached."
As with all artists there are undoubted influences - Kandinsky for one but more particularly the Russian/French abstract painter Serge Poliakoff. Undoubtedly Cole is a master of colour. The power of these paintings relies on two main factors, a perfect understanding of colour and tone and the placing of the right colour against a contrasting colour (powerful in itself), and the use of strong almost three-dimensional shapes, exemplified in his painting 'South Bank'. Combined, these create an explosion of colour that appeals directly to the senses. One does not need to understand the complexities of abstract art to be drawn into its orbit. Stand in front of one of these paintings and you begin a fascinating voyage of discovery.