Sculptor and painter in atmospheric showcase

Saturday 24 November 2018

A sculptor whose "hollowed" humans unite the personal and political, and a painter of "dream-like" landscapes have teamed up in an atmospheric showcase.

Sculptor Anna Gillespie and painter Katy Brown will be sharing the space at CCA Galleries on Hill Street from 30 November until the New Year.

Anna Gillespie first exhibited at the gallery last year as part of the Four Seasons Exhibition but her new work is a departure from the pieces she was previously known for. She has replaced the organic tree materials and the sense of absorption in the natural world with a “harder edge experience, expressed in a riskier, rawer form.”

Although she trained as a stone mason, Ms Gillespie moulded her first bronze sculptures from masking tape. In her pieces, she has always played on the combination of personal and political.

Her new work features human figures now made in plaster - a material more often associated with the artist's studio, which she has used to emphasise hollowness. It alludes to the way in which, disconnected from the natural world, the human experience can be hollow, despite material wealth.

Pictured: Anna Gillespie's new work is made out of plaster.

It also aims to reflect that art is not a refuge from political and emotional complexity. Anna said: “The layers within any artwork can be physical – here in plaster upon plaster, built up, knocked back, dripped, flung and placed, pigment clinging to the depths of the texture. Beyond this are unseen dimensions – layers of process, emotion and narrative.”

Born in Jersey, Katy Brown has exhibited in London, Bath and Cornwall. For the last 20 years, she has painted ethereal landscapes from Jersey and Cornwall, where she now lives as artist in residence on the Earl of Edgecombe's Estate. Her exhibition will be her first major show since she left Jersey.

She describes the act of painting as “a process of distillation that occurs through the conscious and unconscious mind and senses, absorbing visual information and allowing the idea to pour onto the canvas, creating an emotional ambience that is both contemplative and compelling.”

Despite having been in Cornwall for nearly 10 years, Ms Brown says she is still influenced by Jersey's palette and landscape, which feature in her pieces in a “veiled, distilled, dream-like way.”

Pictured: Although she lives in Cornwall, Katy Brown is still influenced by Jersey landscapes.

Ms Brown works with oil on canvas, using pure pigments and layers of glazes and applying marks and layers of fluid colour to capture fleeting moments. She mostly works in series, creating a body of work that may take a few months or many years. 

“Layers are applied intuitively, through a painterly language of considered mark," she explained. "These layers portray the mood and atmosphere of internal and external landscapes that I experience during each visit to the painting. I use colour to build a visual history, creating the transparent illusion of differing levels of depth, through extremes of dark and light, restraint and freedom, movement and stillness, absence and presence, within the two-dimensional space, giving the effect of overlaying many sheets of coloured glass.”

Kevin Allen, of Investec Private Banking, which sponsors the exhibition, said: "The two featured artists have produced fantastic thought provoking pieces and we are delighted to be part of bringing them to the island."