RICHARD ADAMS
Richard Adams was born in Hampshire in 1960, shortly afterwards his family moved to Wiltshire. Here Adams spent his youth amidst the south Cotswold countryside which was to have such a great influence on his later work. He studied illustration at Leicester Polytechnic and on graduating with a BA Hons degree he moved to London. Here he worked for several years initially in an animation studio and latterly as an illustrator producing images as wide ranging as editorial images for the Radio Times and advertising campaigns for clients such as BP. During the 1980's Adams won many awards for his work in illustration.
In 1995 Adams moved to Playden in East Sussex where he now lives with his partner and two young daughters. He works out of a studio in nearby Rye and the port, seaside and Sussex countryside feature heavily in his work. The Cornish coast where he holidays and the Cotswolds, familiar from his childhood, also prevail in his images. Recent trips to Devon and in particular to Combe House in Gittisham (for whom he has executed several commissions) have encouraged the introduction of the Devon countryside into his images. Adams' work continues to be inspired by his long-held loves for English vernacular architecture, British history and our native flora and fauna.
Since 1991 Adams has exhibited annually with Hybrid Gallery he has also exhibited in Sydney, Bremen, Madrid, Washington and Dallas. He now regularly shows in London, the Cotswolds, Devon and his home town of Rye. Using chalk pastel and fixing it with layers of varnish that soak into the paper Adams produces uniquely vibrant images with a permanent surface. His idiosyncratic and wildly imaginative vision of the world places his work in the footprints of a line of British eccentric visionary artists such as Spencer and Dadd.
JAMIE BOYD
Jamie Boyd lives and works in Cornwall, it is his adoptive home and it influences and informs the major part of his painting. Born and brought up in Eastbourne in East Sussex, he moved to Cornwall in 1999 to study for a degree at Falmouth College of Arts, he stayed there to do an MA and completing that gained a residency in Falmouth Docks. He currently paints in a studio overlooking the estuary and gains much of his inspiration from the river and wharves beyond his window.
Based on first hand observation, his paintings are concerned with effects of the changing light on the colour and tone of the river, land and sky. Seeking to capture the landscape as it appears in a fleeting moment Jamie works rapidly in oil or in watercolour as he thinks fit, even occasionally making a biro sketch to record a momentary image. Impulsively interacting with the seasonally changing landscape in this way he unveils the poetry and beauty of the Cornish coast.
Jamie has exhibited since 2003 principally in Cornwall and London where he has been identified as a prodigious talent with a strong future ahead of him. We are pleased to be showing a significant collection of his Cornish paintings in this, his first, exhibition at Hybrid.
EMMA McCLURE
Emma McClure studied at Falmouth School of Art and at Winchester School of Art and then went on to complete her MA at Chelsea in 1985.
She is based now in London and works from her studio there. Emma’s work is based on observation whether it be a still life or figures in a landscape. Most commonly her subjects are birds, flowers and plants. She always aims to stay true to her subject and her experience of it but may chose to alter the composition of a piece in pursuit of a balance of form, space and colour. The paint is layered and scraped, evidence of the working and reworking as she realises a simplicity which, whilst still evocative of the subject loses any degree of faithful naturalism.
Emma has participated in many mixed exhibitions in London, Suffolk and Cornwall over the last 20 years including the Royal Academy Summer Show and has recently had regular solo shows in London.
DEREK NICE
Born London 1933. Studied Southend School of Art (NDD) Painting & Ceramics London University (ATD) Art Teachers Diploma Central School of Art London (Postgraduate Design) Teacher of Art & DesigN. Designer for BBC TV London & Bristol. Design for Films Museums & Exhibitions.
Currently working as a Painter Sculptor in Somerset and Malta.
Joint Exhibitions Sea Dreams 1998/9 Victoria Art Gallery Bath S.A.W. 2006 with Mary Nice Solo Exhibitions Fermoy Art Centre Kings Lynn 1997 Kings School Worcester (Artist in Residence) 2000 Chelsea & Westminster Hospital 2001 Piers Feetham Gallery London 2002 St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity 2003 Galleria Gaulos Gozo Malta 2003 Yew Tree Gallery Cornwall 2004 The Cut Halesworth Suffolk2005 Erin Arts Centre Isle of Man 2005 Kings Lynn Arts Festival 2006 Future Shows Piers Feetham Gallery London Feb/March 2007 Hybrid Honiton Sept/Oct 2007 St James Cavalier Valletta Malta Oct /Nov 2007
SARAH BALL
Sarah grew up in Rotherham, South Yorkshire and studied illustration at Newport Art College (1983-6). She moved to London and working as an illustrator here in the late 1980's she was much in demand, popular with clients such as The Royal National Theatre, Decca Records, Penguin books, EMI and Time Magazine. Throughout this time Sarah also made time to nuture her love of painting and she began to exhibit the work she made independently of illustration commissions.
In 1995 Sarah moved with her family to South Wales and from here on has concentrated on her own work. Since completing her Master of Fine Arts at Bath Spa University in 2005 her painting has been widely appreciated and she has been invited to exhibit throughout South Wales and the West Country.
Sarah's work has long been admired and supported by Hybrid but this year sees her first exhibition for Hybrid in Devon. In Nature Paintings her subjects, the shoreline, the flora and fauna of the natural world undergo close scrutiny as Sarah seeks out hidden surfaces, random patterns and formations found in the smallest detail of an air bubble left in the sand or the delicate spores of a fungus. "I am interested in the specific minutia of a vastly larger place. These small formations are made and destroyed every day at a microscopic, local, global and universal level." These physical paintings themselves bear witness to this meticulous attention to detail; the paint is applied with care to the canvas surface creating textures to describe their subject and the whole is beautifully achieved.
JOHN NEWBERRY R.W.S.
John Newberry ‘s experience in watercolour spans some fifty years. Born in Sussex he first studied Architecture at Cambridge and then Fine Art at King’s College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. For many years John lived and worked in Oxford, teaching at the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, he has also taught on courses for the Royal Watercolour Society.
Throughout his career John Newberry has exhibited in Oxford and London. Recently returning to England from living in Italy and in France he has settled in Somerset and the exhibition at Hybrid will be his first in the West Country.
John’s unique background in architecture informs his paintings; it is evident not only in the technical accuracy with which the buildings are rendered but also in the wonderful sensitivity to the space around buildings and (in the absence of buildings) in the sense of space experienced within the landscape. His acute observational skills allow for the inclusion of details without swamping the subject in them and his mastery of watercolour give his paintings the lightness of touch vital in the capture of ever-changing light. His painting has been recognised by the Royal Watercolour Society and in 1989 he was awarded the Foundation Prize.
John’s paintings are all approximately the same size; the scale and viewpoint subtlety implies the painter’s presence as creator and ours as viewer, we like he are drawn in to the subject to observe and participate in the beauty of the place.
MICHAEL BENNETT
Michael Bennett has had a long career as an artist. As an abstract painter he has exhibited at the Royal Academy, Hayward and Serpentine in London, at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and in the John Moores Biennials in Liverpool where he has also been a prize winner.
His "Tree" paintings came into being just a year ago. The paintings are conceived in groups, in twelves (shown in a block 3 by 4) or in sixes, threes or as a pair. Each canvas portrays a solitary, emblematic tree each one in its own space, light and weather. Viewing them together they can give the illusion of time passing; approaching and retreating, they shift and can melt into abstraction. Equally a single tree can stand alone, complete and self-contained.
The paintings are not topographical and avoid the picturesque, they communicate with the viewer rather as symbols which evoke personal memories and experiences and open them up for exploration.
"There is open reference to the loss of time and place and in this sense the paintings are mournful. The light however can be interpreted as sunset or sunrise and the paintings whilst being solemn; walk the thin line between sorrow and hope."
Michael Bennett 2006 Michael Bennett will be exhibition a series of "Trees" in April 2007 at Hybrid.
ANGELA CHARLES
Angela Charles always knew the career path she hoped to follow " all I ever wanted to do was be an artist". She spent six years of study completing a diploma in printed textiles and a BA from Goldsmith's College in Fine Art/Textiles followed by nine years travelling Europe, America and Asia before returning to her home town of Brighton where she first exhibited in 2000.
Given her background it's not surprising that her work began by being collage based or that it is the surface of things which continues to interest her - the surface of her subjects and of her paintings. Graffiti on a wall or a grubbied door will grab her attention and act as inspiration and then the painting will take over and develop its own life as Angela becomes absorbed in the composition and mark making.
Since moving to Crewkerne in 2001 the landscape of neighbouring Dorset has featured more and more in her painting. In particular Chesil Beach holds significance for her and reoccurs in her compositions. Her palette has moved towards the colours of the outdoors too - cools greys and blues and chalky greens evoke the sky, fields, paths and combes of the landscape. The smooth expanses of colour are often marked with lines scratched through or scribbled in charcoal or graphite and sometimes the bright red of a favourite crayon will sing out against the subtlety of the ground.
Angela now regularly exhibits in London, Brighton and at several galleries in Dorset. Her first exhibition at Hybrid will be in June 2007.
CHARLOTTE WRIGHT
Originally trained in social work and ran a large under fives centre for Hackney social services. After the death of her young daughter Holly in 1989, from a congenital heart defect, her life and career changed dramatically.
Charlotte studied ceramics and fine arts at the London Institute, graduating in 1995. She has had numerous successful shows in London, and now in Devon.
Charlotte Wright now describes herself as a colourist and a painter. Textural elements from her previous medium as as a ceramasist are now evident in Charlotte's work, richly layered and vibrant abstract oil paintings. Her painting is influenced by the landscapes , weather and seasons around her home, a smallholding, which she runs with her husband in Brooking near Dartington Totnes.
JANETTE KERR R.W.A.
My paintings represent immediate responses to sounds and silences within the landscape around me; they are about the movement and rhythms of sea and wind, advancing rain, glancing sunlight, swelling and breaking waves, spray merging with air; in other words , the intangible.
Janette Kerr is a painter of landscape; with a nod towards the Romantic landscape painting tradition Janette's practice is fundamentally contemporary and experimental. Beyond mere topography her paintings embody responses to the elemental; her delight in sudden and unpredictable changes in the weather is almost tangible. She is a foul-weather painter who enjoys being out in and working from the landscape when it's wet, dark and moody. Charcoal drawings and smaller paintings on board rapidly made whilst out in the elements, crouched on rocks close to the water or on windswept headlands, form the basis for larger works on canvas painted in the studio.
Her preoccupation with the sea has taken Janette to the coasts of South Wales and Dorset (where she grew up), to the Isle of Skye and Northumbria, and to the Ring of Kerry, Ireland where she was a resident artist at the Cill Rialaig International Art Centre. Aswell as searching out wild and remote peninsulas Janette has sought to push the boundaries of her experience of the landscape; through walking and drawing at night and through her study of fires in the open landscape.
Janette Kerr exhibits widely within the UK and is an academician of the Royal West of England Academy. In 2004 she completed a practice based PhD and has published several papers and articles. She lives and works in Somerset.
JENNY GRAHAM
Jenny Graham was born in England but spent her formative years in America, in 1979 she returned to England. She moved to Somerset in 1984 and since then has been working as a professional artist.
Jenny Graham paints the landscapes around her of Devon and Somerset and further afield of Cornwall and Hampshire. Her smooth-surfaced, controlled oil paintings relate a specific interpretation of the countryside; through her eyes we see pattern and form crystallised from the haphazard arrangements of land, water and buildings of the general view.
Attracted by both the timelessness of land forms and the more recent marks of human intervention, field patterns, roads and buildings; she blends the two seamlessly into a vision of a harmonised landscape. On site Jenny makes quick sketches and notations on colour, time of day, weather and location. In the studio this information is combined with her emotional and visual recollection of the place and pared down to simple shapes side by side, to broad areas of colour and to sweeps of light and shade through which she relates to us the rhythms of the landscape.
The work in this her first solo exhibition at Hybrid, is based on recent sketches made during the winter of 2007-8. Some of the locations which will be recognisable but all the paintings were created in response to a particular place at a particular time.
GERRY DUDGEON
Gerry Dudgeon was born in India in 1952, where his father was a tea planter. The family resettled in England in 1953, and Gerry initially studied Modern Languages at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1970-74. He then worked for the Museum of London as an archaeologist for a year, where he developed an interest in uncovering the past by excavating layers of human occupation.
He went on to study Fine Art (Painting) at Camberwell School of Art from 1975-79, graduating with a First Class B.A. Hons degree, and continued studies in painting as a postgraduate on the M.F.A. course at Reading University from 1979-81, which he chose because it was run by Terry Frost and Adrian Heath.
On graduating in 1981 he was awarded a Boise Travelling Scholarship from the Slade School of Art and chose to visit New York to pursue his interest in contemporary American painting. He also admires the St Ives painters Peter Lanyon and Roger Hilton, Ivon Hitchens, the Scottish colourists, and 18th century Indian miniatures.
On his return he worked as an artist in London before moving to West Dorset in 1987. He gave up part-time Art School lecturing in 2002, to concentrate wholly on painting.
GARY LONG
Gary Long was born in Birmingham, England in 1945. He attended Birmingham College of Art after which he spent two years working as an illustrator in Vancouver, Canada. On returning to England he resumed study at Manchester College of Art. Having left college he worked as a freelance illustrator on numerous national and international accounts in publishing and advertising for a number of years.
As a painter Gary has exhibited in with several galleries in the UK, he has also showed in Vermont, Nantucket Island and New York. Relatively recently he moved to St Ives from Devon to be closer to the environment that most inspires him. He lectures part-time at the University College Falmouth.