Bernard Swift exhibition opens at Chocolate Factory Gallery

Collage Arts and Karamel are pleased to be kicking off this year’s series of exhibitions with a selection of works by Bernard Swift. An artist whose style is instantly recognisable but ever difficult to categorise, Bernard’s work contains echoes of bawdy seaside postcards, imposing soviet propaganda posters, and magnificent stained glass friezes, with an occasional loving yet sarcastic nod to the classics of the old masters. But, with a sensibility that could draw comparisons to Velazquez, it’s the fine details and their hidden gems that really give these impressive pieces their unique charm. Whether they’re nostalgic stills of New England beaches, or dense biblical parodies transported to a heaving modern Britain, each painting has its own distinct story, and each character their own personality and purpose. No public figure or archetype is safe from Bernard’s satirical brush and careful observers may even see friends and neighbours among those mercilessly, yet joyfully caricatured.

Exhibition runs until 23 March 2012 at the Gallery in Karamel restaurant, 4 Coburg Road, London N22 6UJ.

Open Monday to Friday from 10 ’til 4pm and Friday/Saturday evenings from 6 ’til 10pm.

Stones and their colours have been my passion for as long as I can remember, the more unusual the stone the better. I love creating designs from delicate feminine to huge, sometimes over the top jewellery but always something that will stand out, be it the design or the actual stones themselves.

Glamunique was born out of the idea to create glamorous and unique jewellery designs with top quality materials. Jewellery that will give you the ‘WOW’ factor when you walk into a room. I only create one-off designs so the jewellery of your choice will be totally unique to you.

Most designs are made from semi-precious stones, however I do use other materials like driftwood, glass, metal, etc.. Basically anything that inspires me. All the materials I use are from suppliers that have an excellent trade standard or that I have sourced during my frequent travels all over the world.

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The use of metal and found objects in my sculpture is, I feel, a progression from the traditional and conventional manner in which artists have interpreted nature and animals. Parts for these welded sculptures shown here have been collected from various skips and industrial wastelands in and around London.

The supply is endless and fruitful. From childhood plants, animal and insect life have intrigued me. Being brought up in the Green Belt of North London, I had plenty of opportunity to observe nature from nearby woods, streams, ponds and lakes.

I am a member and a frequent visitor to London Zoo! I feel I have succeeded in amalgamating this fascination with nature into my creative work.

My aim is to capture the essence and soul of the subject matter.
To me, animals, birds and insects have a humour, vulnerability and simplicity that I transmute into sculptural form

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My work is informed by our relationship with the environment and our sense of history. I am interested in how we see our environment and how this perception has changed over time. My work explores this changing sense of place and history.

Research forms an important part of my process and may involve a journey, obtaining specific objects and sourcing visual reference material. I work mainly in acrylic paint and build up colour and composition using glazes and colour washes.

My paintings often involve a memory or image of either a place or event. This initial image may then be subsequently obscured or buried within other images or forms. My work is motivated by our re-evaluation of this relationship with the environment and of our history.

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I do what are sometimes referred to as “art quilts”,  mostly with a spiritual aspect to them.  Geometric rather than pictorial, they are contemplative works, often glowing with colour and light, and inviting the viewer to pause and reflect.  The quilts deal with a wide experience of life, from vineyards to expressions of faith, hope and vision. My quilts are mainly wall hangings with a timeless but contemporary feel, based on ancient patterns. The objective which I am working towards in my quilts is to create textile art that invites the viewer to contemplate, reflect, feel and be aware of the presence of God, which for me is conveyed by a sense of order, with both movement and stillness, and radiance of light.  My object is not to preach, but to lead the viewer towards contemplation and peace.

My inspiration comes from many sources, but often Bible verses or poetry.  Also landscape and striking patterns or colour combinations, for example an extraordinary sunset seen from an aeroplane.  The design tends to come into my mind whole, including shape and colour.  After that a process of arithmetic and geometry is needed; then there is the best part: choosing the fabrics.

The work speaks back to me as I make it up, so some changes are made, hopefully at an early stage to prevent unpicking it all!  My quilts can take anything from two days to three months to make.  I use the sewing machine for as much as possible.

Afterwards I look at it with astonishment; did I really make that?   Even if I don’t like it, someone else usually does, and sees things in it I never thought of.

The focus of my work explores the mysteries, puzzles, happiness, and pains of life- within the often sublime complexities of balancing composition, content, and colour within my paintings. In terms of portraits, subtle imagery attempts to grasp a sympathetic interpretation of an individual’s persona, whilst at the same time, referencing out to a wider context. In recent work the integration of different paint surfaces and multiple vistas within the canvas are particularly interesting, with robust drawing skills and complex colour palettes all key factors in creating the final composition.

This year my work focuses on ideas about change and relative value.

Buddhists believe that our earthly challenge is to find true self. Part of this is to understand the value of everything around us. One must respect that everything has individual value and yet one should not be held in higher esteem than another. For instance, coffee and wine have two different tastes but the difference is not what is important; they both quench thirst. This is reflected in my work because I am influenced by everything in my surroundings; I get mood and feeling from nature, urban furniture, people’s expressions and ordinary moments. The inspiration of my work is not captivated by glitter or gloss.

My current pieces mainly involve paper and glass. Paper because it is fragile and yet becomes extremely strong when condensed in sculpture. Glass appears strong, yet is vulnerable. Two different materials with equal value.

I have tried to explore how time, especially change in natural light, can alter appearances, falling at different angles and facets of sculpture.

I target my work to invite participation. I would like viewers to share my feelings and energy by experiencing change and am interested in what is achieved by people moving pieces. The focus is on deliberate change of a piece, which is accommodated by a natural change in the surroundings.

If you are able only to take away one thing after viewing my work, I hope it is the concept of “this moment of calm”.

Penny Elder’s work is of a semi-abstract nature, often based on landscapes in her head as memories of the Scottish countryside and travels abroad.  Her oil paintings and screenprints also reflect her work as a psychotherapist with subjects such as Exterior-Interior, Windows, Seeing Through, Doorways, and the interplay between external and internal worlds.  Recently she has produced a series on Emerging Memories.  She tends to be more abstract in her screenprinting and monoprinting.  As well as exhibiting in group exhibitions she has had several solo exhibitions – London Centre for Psychotherapy, the Tavistock Centre, the Westminster Pastoral and Therapy Centre, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Gallery.

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I am interested in paintings about places, people, and the interactions between them.

There is no specific narrative or story, or at least none that I’m consciously aware of. The subject is rather the interplay between people, objects and elements making up a scene. Painting always has been and always will be the richest and most flexible language for exploring and expressing this. You get all the various interactions and subtleties of colour, shape, line, space and so on, plus, you get everything all in one go.<

What I hope people will get from my work is a combination of overall intensity with a subtlety in the individual parts; the beauty of colour, the feeling of surface of objects etc. This is often referred to as ‘abstract’ but to me it is simply “pictorial”, the language of painting. And I think the pictorial is made more powerful – certainly more interesting – when it has some direct connection back to something seen or experienced.

For example many of the ‘places’ I paint are in London, where I live. It seems to be an inexhaustible subject; certainly there is plenty of interaction!

What people used to call ‘compositions’ I call ‘Happenings’, where I put people and objects together in imagined settings – just to see what happens. I also paint portraits, mainly to commission.
My work is mostly in oil, or oil and acrylic on canvas, and varies in size from 8 inches up to around 8 feet. Drawing is a constant activity and another important part of my output. More recently I have been experimenting with digital media using an iPad. Examples are regularly uploaded to my website.

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I am a printmaker. I make limited edition screenprints, woodcuts and etchings. There are two main themes to my work.

The first concerns abstraction. I use colour, shape, repetition and variation to construct rhythmic abstract screenprints. I use changes in the weight of the inks, variations in the edges of the shapes and in the order of overlapping colours to build broken patterns that engage the eye over a period of time. Recently I have tended to use commercial packaging (usually boxes folded flat) as stencils for my screenprints: the shapes can be amazing and I feel this introduces a sense of recycling and an element of pop-art into this work.

The second concerns text. I am interested in small emotions and the everyday passage of time as expressed in commonplace phrases. I see these as emblems of hope, perseverance, desperation or resignation.

Sometimes I bring text and image together in poster-like images.

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