Brian Sinfield Art Gallery
Exhibition
Winter Exhibition 3 January 2023 - 4 February 2023
Welcome to our exciting Winter Exhibition which is now on and showing until 4th February.
To view the full exhibition please click here.
Painting shown here is by Robbie Wraith RP | Burlesque | oil on canvas | 101 x 153 cm
We have a wonderful exhibition schedule for 2023, including joint and solo shows featuring existing artists and a few new artists we'd like to introduce.
William Balthazar Rose 11 February - 25 February
Peter Kettle & James Kerr Joint Exhibition 18 March - 1 April
Spring Exhibiton featuring new work by artists the gallery represents - 8 April - 6 May
Silvi Schaumloeffel 6 May - 20 May
Saied Dai & Charlotte Sorapure 10 June - 24 June
Endre Roder 8 July - 22 July
Summer Exhibition featuring new work by artists the gallery represents - 5 August - 9 September
Felice Hodges 16 September - 30 September
Lee Madgwick 14 October - 28 October
Rachel Cronin 18 November 2023 - 2 December
Winter Exhibition featuring new work by artists the gallery represents - 5 - 24 December
Featured
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 also 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.
Painting shown here: Notre Dame De Paris, tinted gesso on canvas on corrugated wood support, 28 x 62 cm
Just In
Charlotte Sorapure NEAC
Few achieve the magical sense of mystery and romanticism than Charlotte Sorapure. Enigmatic, challenging and unique, her paintings are the antithesis of the brash popularist art that dominates the contemporary art scene. These are brilliantly crafted narrative paintings of great strength in which the artist gives full rein to her imagination.
"In my paintings" Charlotte says, "I am constantly searching for the extraordinary or the significant in the ordinary". Like her husband, with whom she shares studios, her belief in good drawing and the subtle use of tone both play a vital role in her work. The richness of earth colours, raw umber, light red, yellow ochre, burnt sienna etc, used with sensitivity and skill give great depth to her paintings. Undoubtedly there is a strangeness about her work, an ambiguity that is both delightful and inspiring. In her formal flower pieces, we see a master of restraint at work.
Charlotte's paintings possess a quiet beauty of their own, reminiscent of the still lives of Fantin-Latour. In her portraits she brings out the character of the sitter in her own unique way with tremendous, almost disturbing force, as exemplified in the now famous portrait of the war photographer Don McCullin. The viewer is left in no doubt that this is a man who has seen a few horrors in his time. This is an uncompromising portrait of pure brilliance. Once again, as with her husband, there is an element abstraction in her work which gives it an extra dimension. Inevitably, as with all artists, one has to consider influences, but here we are hard pressed. One might cite Stanley Spencer, Richard Eurich, Botticelli. She has also been intrigued by the geometric pattern and designs of Islamic art. But ultimately her work is stamped with her own personality.
Charlotte attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design, after which she was awarded a BA at Gloucester College of Art and Technology followed by study at the Royal Academy of Arts, London where she received a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting. She has exhibited widely in this country and in America and is the recipient of numerous prizes. Her list of portrait commissions is impressive and her work graces the walls of a large number of both private and corporate collections.
Painting shown here: Spring Equinox | oil on gesso panel | 45 x 61 cm