7 Earthbound

STEVE NEWTON

‘My work is a reflection of my thoughts, feelings and experiences. Or indeed my interpretation of others experiences. I am disturbed by much that I see and hear around me and my art is an effort to better understand these experiences and the resulting confusions.

I guess the dominant themes in my work are alienation and the search for peace — for resolution. I am driven by the need to explore questions about the meaning of my life, the irrational nature of things — life’s absurdity.

There is a certain ritualistic element to my work and my working methods, but this has never been conscious. It is more the result of my methods of working and the practice of having the elements that appear in the work around me for some considerable time before they find their place in a sculpture. I will also create artworks or objects and then leave these to gather dust, or to weather in the garden for some years—to then bring these elements back into a piece of work. This introduces an element of chance and something

beyond my control into the piece. I have always enjoyed the apparent history in a piece of art, an artIfact, old worn toy or object. For me there is also an element of magic attached to the objects that I enjoy using—something indefinable.

The winged creature, or indeed the wings generally, represent aspiration to flight or

freedom—or denial of the same.

I hope that my work will move people to respond and think. The work starts off with an

intention to address an issue—(perhaps human rights as in ‘fragile’, or relationships as in the ‘bite’ (bitten). The final piece often has other more personal themes, and I like then to leave the sculpture or image to speak for itself. The simple titles are important to me, but I hope that the work has other meanings and responses for the viewer.

I do not deliberately set out to disturb or upset, but the work grows from my own disquiet and anxiety, it would not have been done if I had not felt so disturbed and compelled to make it.’

ANGELA HOLYOAK

My first love is for landscape, its physicality and colour, movement and interrelation with the Human Form. I respond to the possibilities that emerge through pushing paint around canvas. This will be dictated by my personal interpretations of time and space tempered by the atmospheric effects of weather and mood on nature. I find the gradual, or on occasions, the explosive physicality of an image, a stimulating venture. Many of these speculations take place before the work is complete. I work in all painting media, but most recently almost exclusively in oil.

Much of my inspiration comes from walking through the ever changing landscape of

Dartmoor, Abbotsbury, Dorset, Ireland.

I see my work as being very much in tune with the romantic ideals of English landscape painting, with an element of the sublime in subconscious image making.

Angela’s work has a great following and is appreciated all over the South West.

JO JOYCE

Jo’s highly refined pencil & charcoal drawings, watercolours or portraits are just part

of an artistic undertaking which flows easily from realism to abstraction and back again. Her inspiration always from ordinary daily encounters with her immediate surroundings, totally unpretentious - simply confirming her integrity as an artist and person.

Jo’s warmth and intuitive gift is particularly admired in her portraits and in recognition

of this, her work more often then not finds a home in private collections before anybody else gets a chance to enjoy it.

TONY WOOD

Tony’s work is inspired by estuaries, coastlines and cliff formations, reflecting the tensions, transformations and metamorphosis within matter, often incorporating, in adventurous ways, materials found on site.

The creativity and inspiration of this man has no boundaries. His exquisite draftsman ship acquired over the many decades allows him to create in all media to absolute perfection.

Perpetually inventive and surprising, with his most recent experimentation in patinated cardboard he has produced one of the most sophisticated, integral and above all beautiful contemporary sculptures of recent years ‘Torso’ .

Tony is planning to cast ‘Torso’ in bronze as an edition of five.

Commissions welcome.

ROBERT JOYCE

Robert flusters through – wondering what will stick. Always though he exhibits a child-like delight in the visual world, and - always off beat. His ‘through away’ notepad drawings

are rarely surpassed by their simplicity and yet humanity. His use of colour (if it happens

to be at hand) is extraordinary, beautiful always unique. Robert is influenced by

everything but nobody. When on a roll, his work is always new, exciting, puzzling,

random even. Originally a Yorkshire man, Robert rarely self-promotes yet his almost

flippant but hugely accomplished works recognised and loved by collectors, every time.

Robert also writes short stories and plays. Typically he comments on painting:

‘What more needs to be said about painting? Perhaps nothing. If something,

then need one say anything? Formal qualities – line, shape, colour intuitive approach

insuperability of narrative. Then this illustrative imperative survives despite all; despite

the flight from it begun by Kandinsky, Malevich.’

ANGELA HOLMES

Angela’s passion is stone carving, using predominantly Cornish Polyphant Stone and

Dorset Limestone's but also magnificent alabaster or marble. Angela is a sculptor who

creates fluid forms which invite tactile journeys. Although not directly figurative, the pieces explore different moods and qualities such as poise, protection, expectancy, inspiration, dialogue and expansion. There is a timelessness to her pieces. Their quiet presence and dignity speak to the contemplative nature of the viewer. The sculptures aim to be housed in dwellings and landscapes. Many works can be seen in public gardens and collections around the South West often created specifically for a particular environment.

NAOKO TAKATA

Born, and educated on a tiny island of the Japanese Mainland, Naoko has lived and worked in the UK since her early twenties. Her close bond to the south pacific and the

delicate Japanese traditional painting practice are always apparent in her work but often in a unexpected and definitely in her own deeply sophisticated contemporary style. Her

personal exploration and expression of the moods of two so different cultures and landscapes creates a fascinating dynamic in all her work.

Consistent in her love for the abstract landscape she suddenly reveals a completely

different little big gem ‘Focus’, ink and paint on paper. Naoko created this intriguing

infusion of cultures on her recent visit to Japan.

Naoko has exhibited widely, her work found homes in many collections, most recently in the Broomhill Art Hotel.

SPENCER LARCOMBE

Blacksmith—Artist—Artist Blacksmith?

BEN COLEMAN

Ben was trained at the Royal College of Art Newport and Exeter College of Art & Design.

He now works from his studio in Torquay. Ben uses stained glass techniques as well as the contemporary use of metal working and different forms of lighting. The glass is essentially cleaned cut and set into metal channels (copper foiling) and then soldered into a frame of strengthening rods or wire. Once the sculpture is finished the glass projects its coloured shadow image by means of its own light source or natural light resulting in often beautiful and haunting patterns such that the sculpture lives beyond itself.

EARTHBOUND 2006

Jenny Southam

Jitka Palmer

Jenny Southam

Jitka Palmer

Heidi Konig

Isabel Merrick

Ben Coleman

Spencer Larcombe

Isabel Merrick

Spencer Larcombe

Jenny Southam