A Strange Country

Artists' Exhibition Update

2010-05-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

Jayne Smith will be taking part in 'After The End' exhibition at the Elysium gallery, Swansea from 14th May - 11th June. www.elysiumgallery.com Please drop by and view her new work if you in and around the city.

More exhibition photos

2010-04-12T07:24:00.001-07:00

exhibition photos

2010-04-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Private view photos

2010-04-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

A Strange Country - Private View, 2 April 2010

2010-04-05T02:41:00.000-07:00

A Strange Country: The hang

2010-04-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

A Strange Country: The Private View, 2 April 2010

A fantastic evening - buzzing from start to finish with crowds of interested people and a really friendly atmosphere. Two jazz guitarists, Jamie and Jamie, provided a cool musical background throughout.

If you visit only one exhibition this week, make sure it's this one! You've got until 8 April.

The hang

2010-04-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some brilliant curating by Jesse Leroy Smith and the creativity of all the artists involved, we now have a show that we hope visitors will find both exciting and stimulating.

Our exhibition is now open!

2010-03-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

After two days of hanging our exhibition we're pleased to announce A Strange Country is open as of 10am today!

The last two days have been both very exciting and exhausting. Thanks to Jesse Leroy Smith's magic touch we now have a pretty special show I think we can all be proud of.

Photos coming soon!!

The hang

2010-03-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

Final preparations are underway for hanging the exhibition, it will be a busy couple of days but also exciting. Can't wait to get it up and running!

Private View Entertainment

2010-03-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Great news! It's been confirmed that guitarist Jamie Toms and friend will be providing us with a live jazz session for our Private view on Friday 2nd April 6.00pm - 9.00pm. It promises to be a great evening!

3 weeks to go

2010-03-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

With only three weeks to go, our is flyer ready and the big decisions have been made (well most of them anyway), things are starting to get really exciting! Having something to focus on has been such a positive experience for me, I already feel as though I've got a lot out of collaborating with other like-minded artists and having a period of time to paint with a deadline at the end.

My work has taken on a slightly new direction and I've just recently updated my website. Here's an example of what I've been up to - more coming soon!

Flyer

2010-02-24T06:50:00.001-08:00

Here is our New flyer design! Well worth all the angst and hard work it has taken to get this done!

Flyer

2010-02-13T01:23:00.000-08:00

Back from London, preparations for the exhibition are now gaining momentum. With the help of CAZ and ALIAS we are pushing ahead with the design for our flyer which we expect to launch next week (watch this space!). Its been a tough decision but thanks to everyone's hard work, I think our chosen image is both exciting and dynamic, and will act as a taster for the show, drawing in an audience. Thats the theory anyway!

creative diversion

2010-02-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

I have had a big personal loss this week and am finding it hard to focus on getting some work finished so that it can be photographed for publicity flyers. Is it just me or does everyone end up creatively at their most active when faced with a looming deadline? Breakthroughs never seem to happen early on and I always seem to be busy trying to make things happen right up to the last minute! Given time I know that things will improve but time is becoming a luxury.

2010-01-28T05:36:00.000-08:00

The race is on now to get the paintings finished so that we can print our publicity.

A Strange Country

2010-01-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

A Strange Country

2010-01-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

'Painting is not just of seeing but also of making our world................of understanding..............The physicality of painting (therefore) matters, and experiencing that materiality matters a lot too.'

2010-01-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

It has been a bit of struggle to stop my work from fragmenting and to focus on one path in order to produce a coherent body of work strong enough for the exhibition. Whist trying to finish two large works which were started four or five months ago, I recently found myself exploring a new direction, moving my work away from an over obviously apocalyptic scenario to something which I hope is both more subtle but at the same time is more thought provoking.My interest in wastelands remains firm but I intend to depict them more realistically symbolic, rather than fantastical to provide a recogisable backdrop that is readily accessible to the viewer. Against this have placed a futuristic dwelling, it's pristine, sterile plasticity at odds with the overgrown vegetation and dishevelled buildings that crowd in on it. The figure/figures is inconsequential and feels almost lost in a world that they cannot comprehend. What was it that we were promised? What happened to our dreams of a modern utopia? Where does our future lie?

2009-12-07T01:31:00.000-08:00

Pictured here are some examples of George Morgan's latest work.

2009-12-03T01:23:00.000-08:00

We would like to welcome on board George Morgan who will be joining our group of exhibitors.............photos and links to follow!

2009-12-02T07:51:00.000-08:00

Good News! Jesse Leroy Smith has kindly agreed to curate our exhibition.

2009-11-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce that our exhibition of contemporary art will be taking place at the PZ gallery, Penzance from Monday 29th March through to Thursday 8th April 2010 (excluding Sunday).

National Open Art competition

2009-11-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

Jayne and Una had a great time at Chichester and learnt a lot about hanging an exhibition with a variety of work. Many congratulations to Lisa Wright for winning first prize!

2009-10-29T02:17:00.000-07:00

A Residual Presence, 2009. Oil on board
has been selected for the Chichester National Open Competition

National Open Art Competition Finalists

2009-10-28T04:50:00.001-07:00

Success! - Jayne and Una have been successfully selected from over 1,200 practising artists around the country in the Chichester National Open Art Comp. Everyone is welcome to attend the preview and prize giving on Friday 6th November. check out the website for details. http://www.thenationalopenartcompetiton.com/

'The Grief and Dreams of the Lost Ancestors snared her mind' by Una d'Aragona

The foundations of an exhibition.

2009-10-22T02:50:00.001-07:00

And so begins the preparations. The last couple of weeks have been busy- with my new studio to prepare and organise, plus supports to construct and prime, I have become aware in the change of emphasis between student and professional practice. Right from the outset I am focusing more on the actual quality of what I am producing, slowing down the process to achieve something which I hope will be worthy of a gallery space. The biggest challenge however, has been to find an appropriate exhibition space, one with plenty of light and wall space that is conducive to contemporary art, situated in an area that is both accessible to the general public and located within a locality associated with progressive art. Finally I think we might have achieved this, it is yet to be confirmed but fingers crossed we will be making an announcement within the next week, from then on it should be onwards and upwards.

2009-10-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

2009-10-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

Jayne Smith has been shortlisted for the Pushing Print exhibition in Margate, Kent. http://www.pushingprint.org/

2009-10-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

Naomi Hannam has been shortlisted for the Midas award. View her work in the upcoming exhibition at the Millenium Gallery, St.Ives. http://www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/

2009-10-22T02:13:00.000-07:00

More of Adam's work can be viewed on the Lloyd Gill Gallery website: www.thelloydgillgallery.com

2009-09-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

It's not just about the destination,
it's also about the experience of the journey itself.

2009-09-26T01:48:00.000-07:00

'Painting is the art which reminds us that time and the visible come into being together...' this quote by John Berger appeared in the Art magazine 'Turps Banana' ( really worth checking out if you are a painter). Time, by referencing memory, the past and present, with the visible representations that have been depicted in paint in order to access a subject on a deeper level. This probably sums up one of my main motivations in my work at the moment, which I am trying to achieve by sourcing images from various places - personal photographs and those from the media, stills from T.V. and film, and iconography from Early Romantic Paintings; Combining and layering to produce something that has a timeless, infintessimal quality by which I hope will evolve into another dimension. This is my starting point.

2009-09-24T06:17:00.000-07:00