Art at Seven

Kim Gunn-Russell

Thanks very much for viewing my exhibition. I currently live in West Park, Leeds but grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne where I studied art up to AS-level and received a lot of praise for my still life, portraits and observation work. After finishing university, I rediscovered a love a drawing as a hobby, initially doing portraits in pencil and then moving on to painting in acrylics. I have continued to paint in my spare time alongside my job as a research nurse.

I also come from quite an artistic family, my great grandfather was Scottish landscape artist George Melvin Rennie, who’s most famous customer was the Queen Mother!

I love painting scenery and nature in a way that puts the viewer ‘in the scene‘ or brings the subject to life. I particularly love painting places I have travelled such as China, and closer to home, have done some scenes of beautiful Harrogate, North Yorkshire. which can be found on memorabilia for sale in prestige retail outlets such as at the Royal Horticulture Society at Harlow Carr Gardens and Farrah’s of Harrogate in the town centre.

I paint using acrylics as I find them very versatile in terms of creating different textures and colours. I hope you enjoy viewing my artwork.

Hossein Amini

Creative activities have always been part of my life, my art work is expressed by using different mediums, not restricted to using pencil and paints, for me the journey of art is never ending which is why the techniques I use are so varied. I dream my painting then I paint my dream…..

Dawn Carey Jones

My drawings are sketches of the mess around me, made within the confines of a limited time span and palette; an expression of the excitement of looking, mark making, putting a line in completely the wrong place but still enjoying the process, and doing it for absolutely no reason at all!

Magdalena Szymanska

Meet Your Neighbours

We are not alone! When we were building our houses, streets and shops, at the same time we destroyed the houses of our neighbours. We destroyed the natural habitat for the rest who live in our area. Lots of them died or moved away but there are some who survived and built new homes just next to us.

Don’t ignore the fact that there are less and less trees and wildlife around you. Without nature your children will play on concrete streets instead of grass, eat chemicals, and breathe pollution.

Life is beautiful, nature is amazing, wildlife is so interesting and can teach you lots, so please in the rat race for money, stop and take a deep breath and look around. You will be amazed how much positive energy this moment can give you.

My photos are only some examples of the nature living in the same area as you (plus one or two visitors from overseas!)

Sheryl Roberts

Born in Leeds in 1971 – Sheryl studied at Jacob Kramer School of Art, then graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University. Several years of teaching in schools and colleges led her in 2001, to become a full time artist – working from her studio in Hyde Park.

Sheryl’s latest body of work is directly inspired by the changing chaotic skies in imaginary lands – a place she finds mysteriously fascinating. ‘ A place that evokes emotion as reflective light seems to divide light in every direction’

Sheryl’s work has been much acclaimed through exhibition and private commission throughout the UK and Europe.

Jessica Artistic

Artist and pug owner.

I’m 25 years old live in the Chapeltown area of Leeds. I have been painting all my life and for the past year I have focused on commissions of pet portraits. Being such a huge animal lover I have thoroughly enjoyed this.

In 2015 whilst making plans for my next travels abroad I painted a range of sunsets and sunrises over Chapeltown throughout the month of October, loving the fact that what I was capturing could have been anywhere in the world.

I continued to paint my pugs, Macy and Hugo through the late summer months. Here is where I created ‘artist life and pug love’. I paint on canvas with acrylic and most recently have been producing prints.

For the future I am hoping to take my travels, skylines and pugs further into aspects of interior design. For my next collection I am taking inspiration from my most recent travels to Las Vegas, st Kitts & Nevis and Barcelona.

Stephen Willingham

I am a local artist based in Chapel Allerton, producing art more often since retiring in 2004.

Just lately, I have explored abstract expressionism in paint, and the pictures on display are a result of that. I like to draw too, and usually produce detailed images, or patterns in pencil and marker. My experience at Bradford art College gave me added stimulus for this, but unfortunately, I never used my training to make a career of it.

I like bright colours, as you can see. I think it is very attractive to have powerful colour in my work, and it goes a long way to entertain the viewer. I have been told my pictures cheer people up.

Barrie Whitney

I am a retired teacher who has lived in Chapel Allerton for 26 years. I enjoy nature photography , travel and literature. My interests inform my painting decisions and are definitely a work in progress.

I have always admired the post impressionists so am not in any way a modernist or avant garde. I hope people enjoy looking at my paintings as much as I enjoyed painting them.

Rachel Hinds

Rachel’s work explores colour, form and the painting process. Her subjects include landscapes, portraits, abstracts, and work which combines several of these elements.

Her experiments with the painting process, with their expressive sweeps of paint, drips and strong colours, are visual manifestations of internal ideas and concepts. The theme ‘light’ – in both nature and the scientific world features frequently in her work.

She is continuously developing her figurative painting by studying nature and long dead painters, favourites include Velazquez and Turner.

www.rachelhindsart.com

Facebook Rachel Hinds

Graeme Wilson

Graeme Willson is probably the U.K.’s leading mural artist, with a distinguished track record of award winning commissions. These include works
for York Minster and the well known “Cornucopia” mural by the Corn Exchange in Leeds.

He has received Arts Council Grants for his art in public places
and the Royal Academy Award for Mural Painting. Over the past two decades he has carried out a series of murals for Wm. Morrison Supermarkets at
sites ranging from Glasgow in the north and Hadleigh in the south of England. Examples of these in the form of limited edition prints are on display in the
current exhibition.

Leo Carrie is the agent for Graeme Willson; if you are interested in purchasing a print, or set of prints, please telephone Leo on 07944 852534

Gina Gordon

After graduating from Leeds Art College, I decided to use my knowledge… and hopefully skill…to experiment with all types of media. I have no exact path… material/paint/print/wire/…anything and everything inspires.

My current work is made from acrylic paint and a material called Tyvek. It is always exciting to see what emerges, as no two pieces are the same.

Liz Owens

After a long working life in education, specialising in the creative and expressive arts and latterly working in care and mental health settings I  retired. After retirement, I was pleased to have an exhibition at Seven of life drawings that people enjoyed.This urged me on to keep drawing and try out working in print media.

Most of the prints currently on show are of the Tees estuary and are a homage to the demise of what was once during the 50’s 60’s and 70’s when I grew up and lived there, a real Northern Power House, employing thousands in the steel and petro chemical industries, in Redcar, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.These wonderful blast furnaces will, in a few years, no longer be on the horizon.

Simon Dobbs

Simon Dobbs was born in Leeds. He studied at Bradford Art College and Falmouth School of Art. He works in oil on canvas and his paintings reflect the people, places and culture of his home town.

His work addresses traditional themes of still life, landscape and life painting, employing vivid colour with an expressive handling of paint.

Simon is a studio holder at Jackson’s Yard, Leeds.

Niki Roach

The Big Trip

In November 2013, Niki and her husband Rew packed their life into 4 large storage crates and boarded a train to Heathrow…first stop Rio!

189 days, 32 flights, 23 bus trips, 18 train journeys and 15 countries later they finally came home to Leeds.

They had the most extraordinary adventures and the one constant over the 7 months of their travels was the camera strapped to Niki’s hip.

This exhibition aims to share a sense of the amazing cultures, people and landscapes they had the joy of experiencing.

Niki Roach is an amateur photographer with a serious case of wanderlust living in north Leeds (mainly). She is interested in photography as a legitimate excuse to talk to people about their lives whilst exploring the world.

Images are professionally framed & printed with archival quality inks.
All prints are also available unframed (limited edition).

You can find out more about Niki’s work or contact her via her website.

eyehartphotography.com

Twitter @eye_hart

Instagram eyehartphotography

Judy Sale

All Sorts

The paintings for this exhibition at Seven Arts, Leeds, W. Yorkshire for the month of October 2015 are a selection of works made after my recent travels to Thailand, Laos and Bali as well as at my past home in Italy and now here in Yorkshire.

I have led a rather nomadic lifestyle all my adult life living in 8 different countries; always on the edge of any given culture – a traveller or an immigrant/ex-pat forever on the move. It has given me a different perspective about the world’s environment. Beauty is everywhere but it is not for me to merely record what I see. I want to create a new presence, a unique expression that both the viewer and I, the painter, can share and relate to.

These works incorporate my own marks and methods from a previous more abstract style but with the introduction of digital photos I have taken on site. I’ve used oils mainly but sometimes acrylics, charcoal and pen too – applied freely using my favourite tools, palette knifes and fingers!

www.judysaleartist.co.uk
Facebook: JudySale twitter: @judysale
Instagram: @judysale12

Greig Ness

Abstractions

Greig’s photography reflects a passion for what can be seen around us in everyday objects, life, and the landscape we travel through.

The selected pictures show an interest in both the detail and natural beauty of the often unobserved that surrounds us.

He has a wide range of images and his exhibition takes as a focal point the abstract detail and beauty of these things.

www.13monkeys.co.uk

Paul Hannah

I was born in Leeds and have always loved Art, Rock Music and Sport. My artwork brings together two of my great passions – portraiture and rock music. Most of the musicians I have drawn I have seen perform live or are part of my record collection.

My Tessellation Portraits are influenced by the work of M C Escher and Chuck Close. Each individual tessellation shape being an abstract drawing that makes up the whole.

My “Big ’Ed” portraits came about from a desire to draw the bands and music fans I have met during my years of attending rock gigs.

I have exhibited at various music festivals including Kippertronix Festival, Ravenstondale Fesival, Kirkby Lonsdale Festival. I have also exhibited and curated the Artshow at Strummercamp Festival in Manchester for the past 4 years.

My work has also featured on album covers and tour posters.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/punk.art.1.

Website: http://paulaitcharty.wix.com/paul-aitch-art

Twitter: @PaulAitchArt
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/punkart1
Instagram: @PaulAitchArt
Email: paulaitch.arty@yahoo.co.uk

Paul Harris

Mother, Sister, Daughter

Women throughout the world give the dominant form and shape to the fabric of society. Women do 70-80% of all agricultural & food production in the world. Women are responsible for well over half the world’s cash income and their role as compassionate powerbrokers and decision makers is gaining long overdue
recognition. We should be continually reminded that ‘girl power’ is older than mere 21st century pop culture.

Women have always been at the heart of any community and it’s women who have their fingers on the pulse of daily life. Relying on their hospitality and organisational savvy has frequently meant the difference between success and failure on many of my travels and photographic projects.

Mother, Sister, Daughter’ is a collection of images from 25 years of travelling to remote, rural and ethnic communities around the world.

“ …women are nowhere passive, helpless, despairing beings crushed by patriarchy. They are sometimes accomplices; at other times manipulators; what they seem to intuit early and everywhere is that the system must be subverted if one is not to bruise oneself by beating one’s head against its stone walls. Goddesses and sorceresses are known, after all, to be capable of myriad transformations and transmutations, surviving by disappearing and by unexpectedly reappearing.” Essay on women by Anita Desai.

www.paulharrisphotography.com

Walter Lewis

I seek out times and places which offer space for deep reflection. In particular I seek to find a new sensibility which is contemporary yet restores emotional connections back to the earth. In many ways it is a search for contemporary enchantment.

Allenheads is a small village situated at the head of Allendale, a remote valley in Northumberland. It owes its existence to a number of lead mines which were worked in the 18th and 19th centuries and which were clustered around the village. It was a desperately hard life and even today, the spirit of the miners seems to haunt the land, challenging our contemporary disconnection with the world on which we depend.

I spent the first week in April in 2014 on a communal residency by Mimeses North at Allenheads Contemporary Art Centre in Northumberland. I guess the images which I made there are my personal homage to the men, women and children of the mines.

Molly Ovenden

Colour, line and how light affects everything it touches all fascinate me. I love focusing on details. Everything I create is an experiment to gain freedom from my need to be in control.

Much of my work is inspired by this quote, ‘The only real tragedy in life: to not use the gifts and talents that God gave us…’-Unknown. I believe that we are all made to be creative. I don’t ever want to take for granted or waste anything that God has given me—I don’t even want to waste the last bits of paint. Most of my painting is done with acrylic.

Catherine Aldred

Catherine Aldred (Gleisner) BA (Hons) is an illustrator whose interest lies in capturing the world around her through pen, ink and watercolour drawings and printmaking methods. She has a particular interest in the architectural detailing of buildings in both urban and landscape settings.

Catherine studied at Leeds College of Art and Illustration at Camberwell School of Art (University of the Arts London).
Catherine has exhibited widely in both group and solo shows, in spaces as diverse as The Institute of Contemporary Arts and Association of Illustrators in London; the Design Innovation Centre, the Brahm Gallery, Leeds University gallery, the Henry Moore Institute library and Leeds Art Gallery; Kentmere House Gallery, The Mansion House, National Railway Headquarters and the city art gallery in York; Holmfirth Art Week; Headingley Arts & Enterprise Centre; and the Fondation Coubertin, Yvelines, near Paris. Her limited edition Gocco prints are available in Chirpy in Chapel Allerton.

Alex Keating

Alex Keating delves in to the depths of the surreal in his collection of striking prints. Starting life as a sketch, Alex’s striking works are transformed through digital software to achieve his recognisable style.

Inspired by Salvador Dali, Jason Brooks and ‘everyday encounters’ Alex developed his unique style by experimenting with surrealism using variations of shades of grey and black.

Alex believes when creating art ‘it is easy to replicate what you have already done… If you produce something new and exciting it will stand out from the crowd. Good artwork will always draw attention.’

Over the last year Alex has been working on a new set of images using ‘cloud-like textures’. A few pieces of this collection have already been produced; The calm before the storm, Misunderstood, London calling, A bridge too far and the Serene shark.

Joe Rocky Holey

http://www.joerockyholey.com/

Ben Skinner & Nat Searle

Ben Skinner

Ben trained as a dancer at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and fell in love with Yorkshire. His interests lie in investigating different forms of process and design, whatever artistic discipline they happen to fall inside.

Ben’s latest adventure has been creating ‘Otter and Ink’, a sustainable screen printing initiative. He sources pre-loved frames in keeping with his ethos. He meticulously draws each piece before producing his screens.

He gives character to each animal and paints into many of his prints to complete them.

Some prints are available unframed, contact Ben directly for details.

contact: otterandink@gmail.com

www.otterandink.co

Nat Searle

Nat explores the relationship between strong graphical imagery, colour and scale. Her ideas are distilled into pieces that are beautifully simple.

She runs a multi disciplinary practice so manipulates her own photographs and illustrations to produce artwork for her screens. Inspiration is drawn from her immediate environment with the resulting work often being ‘localised’.

Nat sells her work unframed, but can advise on framing.

contact:  info@natsearle.com

www.natsearle.com

Alice Denny

Alice Denny explores the meaning and effect of every day objects of society through treatments of themed images. She anthropomorphises objects with a view to technically exploring and researching different ways of representing them.

She is interested in the potential and pitfalls of the human condition through the metaphors of consumer goods.

Alice uses different approaches in mark making. Stencils are employed as an artificial constraint for the exploration of mark making within them.

Alice plays with the traditional role of framing to break up the unity of her vessels, the intention being to encourage a contradictory sense of falling and balance within the work.

Contact :  alice1denny@gmail.com

Jo Dunn

Jo paints mainly in watercolour, but sometimes in oil or gouache. This summer she worked in black and white using Chinese ink. These pictures are a bit different to her watercolours and she’s looking forward to seeing what people make of them at this new exhibition.

“I paint a lot of landscapes, some are expressionistic and some are almost abstract”, said Jo. “Most of my current work is about where I live, near to Gledhow Valley Woods. The woods are a great source of inspiration as they change with the seasons.”

The official opening of the exhibition is on Wednesday 15th October, 6-8pm, all welcome.

www.jodunn.co.uk