11th July – 26th Aug 2018
Ceramic Art by Marie Lofthouse and Paintings by John Creighton
Marie Lofthouse in her Beverley studio ©Lee Stow.
Marie Lofthouse Ceramics
“Working thematically, I hand build sculptural pots and pieces whose forms are composites of shapes and structures observed in nature and human anatomy. Using strips of rolled-out clay, each pot is made up in stages from a flat base shape and developed asymmetrically in folds and curves to give a sense of movement and life to the final organic form.” Says Marie.
Marie’s work is largely unglazed and created from grogged clay that fires white. Those ceramic pieces that are decorated are matt glazed, Raku fired in an outdoor kiln, and, reduced in a bin of flaming sawdust and smoke to achieve both earth colours and a carbonised finish.
Marie will present the series of five ceramic art pieces entitled, ‘Spirits of Flamborough’. For Marie, Flamborough Head is a place of ‘presence’: its geography tells stories of evolution, natural history and the continuity of life.
The five ‘Spirits of Flamborough’ represent the interconnected nature and diversity of this exemplary living landscape. Suggestions of seashells, birds, rock formations and human forms are both revealed and hidden in their complex structure, while effects of light and shadow, hollows and holes are explored in these unglazed pots.
The Fisherman by John Creighton
John Creighton
“The flow of ideas give coherence to the image without restricting or becoming too consciously calculated,” says john. “These digital prints are made using the tablet and computer programs. The images evolve by working with this limited range of pictorial elements, devices and game rules. The digital technologies allow the work to develop freely and intuitively creating strange surreal and timeless worlds.” ‘Towers with Figures’, ‘The Puppeteers workshop’,’Figure with Eye’
The prints in this exhibition are made digitally, mainly on the ipad, using several apps, including art rage and procreate.
Sometimes I export the images to another computer for further work in other software before returning them to the ipad to continue. This process can get quite involved and allows me to build complex and rich layers and textures, working freely and intuitively. The pieces are involved with exploring the process and structure of appearance which emerges when several pictorial elements interact, and are enriched by accident and impulse. I am interested in the poetry of relationships which this process brings about. A poetry which is by turn allusive, illusive and ambiguous.
All the prints are made with lightfast pigment inks on 350g and 310g Hahnemuhle archive papers. The prints are framed using archive mounts and backing boards.
The prints may be bought either framed or un-framed. Once the exhibition print is sold you may still order further framed or un-framed prints up to the limit of the edition.