Summer Exhibition

12 August - 23 September

A rolling exhibition of paintings, sculptures and ceramics throughout August and September, featuring the latest work by a mixture of gallery artists and invited artists, including semi-figurative scenes of Cornish harbours by Robert Cary-Williams; abstracted still lifes by Julia Cooper; vibrant abstracts by well-known Cornish painter Luke Frost; naïve Cornish harbour scenes by Daphne McClure; her daughter, Emma McClure’s popular still lifes and St Ives compositions; dynamic still lifes by Diana Matthews FRSA, and  Myles Oxenford, vibrant paintings by Scottish painter, Jackie Philip and fresco compositions by Jean Melville Rose, who has just been elected into the Bath Society of Artists. This exhibition features a wonderfully rich and colourful variety of different approaches, exploring semi-figurative styles. With each of these artists’ paintings is a real feeling of the enjoyment of handling paint and an understanding of colour through subjects of abstraction, still-life and landscape. The gallery will feature more than fifty works by well-established artists, some of whose work hangs in important public collections around the world, including Tate Gallery, Pallant House and Kettles Yard, Cambridge.

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Born in 1965, Robert Cary-Williams launched his eponymous fashion label to great acclaim. A post-graduate of Central St Martin's School of Art, Cary-Williams is known for playing with the tensions and limits of fabrics and canvases, pushing the boundaries of art and fashion. Examples of his work feature in the permanant collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Julia Cooper is based on the south coast of Cornwall, her studio overlooking a busy harbour. This latest series of paintings concentrates on the south coast of Cornwall and kitchen still-lifes painted in mixed media with acrylic, pastel and charcoal. Surfaces are washed with colour then scored, scraped back or obliterated to create an interesting narrative which allows her to explore colour and rhythm. Whether abstract or figurative the image is discovered through this process. Julia Cooper trained in Fine Art as well as Interior Design and has exhibited her work widely in the United Kingdom.

Anne Desmet, born in Liverpool in 1968, is an established artist who specializes in wood engravings, linocuts and mixed media collages. She studied at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and Central School of Art and Design, London. She has had major  retrospectives at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford(1998), Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (2010) received over 30 international awards, and her work is in museum collections and publications worldwide. She was elected a Member of London’s Royal Academy of Arts in May 2011 (the third wood engraver ever to be elected in the entire history of the RA). For 15 years she was editor of Printmaking Today magazine and is the author/editor of three printmaking books.

Her work can be found in many public collections including Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; V&A, National Art Library, The Museum of London, British Museum, British Library, London Metropolitan Archive - all London; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Pallant House, Chichester; Manchester University; School of Art & Museum, Aberystwyth Univeristy; University of the West of England; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; Bradford Museums & Art Galleries; Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Chamalières, France; Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa, Finland; Lahti Art Museum, Finland; Museu de Arte do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil; Municipal Art Gallery, Lodz, Poland; Museo Civico, Cremona, Italy; The National Grid PLC; Slaughter & May, London and IMG Corporate, New York, USA.

Luke Frost is known for his masterful approach to colour. He has exhibited widely and has been selected to exhibit at Tate Gallery and has previously been awarded a Tate residency. Luke comes from a line of well known artists; his grandfather was Sir Terry Frost and his father is Anthony Frost. Luke teaches at Newlyn School of Art.

Fran Donovan studied Fine Art at Southampton College, attaining her BA at Winchester School of Art and her MA in Fine Art in Barcelona through Winchester. Donovan went on to teach in Sussex. She won the ‘Bibliotec Award’ from Winchester School of Art in 1994 and European Studies Award, Coopers and Lybrand the same year. Her work is inspired by the landscapes of Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset.

Andrew Lansley, winner of Bath Society of Artists’ ‘David Simon Contemporary Award’ (2016), works in egg tempera and watercolour. His focus is on landscape, marine and architectural subjects. Andrew is a member of the Bath Society of Artists. He won the 2016 Royal Watercolour Society Exhibitions Award and has exhibited at the Royal Academy, RWA and numerous shows at the Mall Galleries, including the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, Royal Society of Marine Artists, New English Art Club, Royal Society of British Artists, Sunday Times Watercolour and Lynn Painter Stainers Prize. Lansley’s paintings are in a number of important corporate collections and he has been specially commissioned to paint works for the collections of John Lewis Partnership; The Royal United Hospital, Bath; Roman Baths, Bath and Homewood Spa Hotel.

Daphne McClure was born in Cornwall, in 1930 and attended Hornsey College of Art and the Central School of Art before working at the Royal Opera House. In 1995 she was commissioned to exhibit for the first exhibition at Tate, St Ives,. Her work is now widely recognised and has become extremely desirable and found in many private collections worldwide. In 2005 she was invited to Connecticut, USA, for an artist’s residency. Daphne’s paintings display an expressive handling of the subject and its emotional intensity. Her work draws on the rich artistic heritage of Cornwall whilst still maintaining a contemporary and painterly feel. Her current home is in Penzance and provides the inspiration behind her latest and in many ways her most quintessential work.

Emma McClure, born in London 1962, studied at Falmouth School of Art (Foundation), Winchester School of Art (BA Hons Fine Art) and Chelsea School of Art (MA Painting), graduating in 1985. Emma has shown regularly in London and Cornwall. She participates frequently in other group shows. Her paintings are in Private collections in the UK, Hong Kong, USA and Europe.. Emma lives and works in London and Cornwall. The Cornish landscape and the artistic tradition of the area is a continual source of inspiration, in particular the artists associated with St Ives. Her mother is the renowned Cornish painter Daphne McClure.

Myles Oxenford, born in 1977 in Plymouth, grew up in Scotland. He has a BA in Art from Falmouth College Of Art and has lived in Cornwall for over 15 years. His work has been shown in galleries throughout the U.K since 2000. Myles lives and works in rural Cornwall where he explores the landscape and waterscapes of his surrounding environment, as well as floral still lifes taking advantage of the endless visual stimulation from his wife’s flower studio.

Jackie Philip, born in Edinburgh, studied Fine Art at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, at Wimbledon School of Art, London and at The Royal Academy Schools, London from 1978 - 1986. She attained BA 1st Class Honours and MFA. Since completing her postgraduate studies, she has been painting full time as a professional artist and lectured in London, Florence and Auckland. Philip's paintings are in the genre of Still Life and Landscape and are created using raw pigment and oil on canvas to create a rich tapestry of colour and luminosity of light. She has exhibited widely abroad and in the UK and her paintings can be found in both corporate and private collections in the UK, Italy, Barbados, the Americas, Hong Kong and Australasia.

Trained at Bath Academy of Art, Jean Melville Rose is a prolific painter of frescoes in the true sense (buon fresco) as used by the Ancient Pompeians and many of her Still Life subjects retain broadly Classical influences such as Pompeian and Georgian vessels, bowls, and arrangements. Rose’s solo exhibitions since 1960s have shown in Bath, Cambridge, London, Madrid, California and Mexico. Rose’s work can be found in various public collections, including, Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles; Kettles Yard Museum, Cambridge. Notable private collectors include E.M.Forster; Vincent Price, amongst others.

Mike Service trained in Fine Art at Bath Spa University after taking early retirement. Over the past few years Mike Service has exhibited his paintings widely in the UK including in Bath London and at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. He has also undertaken a number of private commissioned works.

Painting in oil on canvas and board, Mike Service paints still lifes, landscape and seascapes in Great Britain, Canada and also on the Continent.

Further paintings also featured by the following artists:

Diana Matthews FRSA Born in Guildford in 1935, Diana Matthews studied Fine Art at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham in the 1950s where she was trained by William Scott as well as visiting lecturers including Antony Fry, Peter Lanyon, Bryan Winter, Adrian Heath and Gillian Ayres. She went on to teach art at various secondary schools. In 1985 she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art. It was only when Diana retired in 1995 that she was able to concentrate fully on painting full-time and to focus on painting still life and abstract work. Diana Matthews has exhibited regularly in London and the South West including at Royal West of England Academy and Royal Society of British Artists.

Michael Rees, born 1962, has been based in Cornwall for the past thirty years. Influenced by the work of artists such as Paul Klee, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon and Giacometti, his paintings on coursely textured canvas and board carry a rich expression of atmosphere and emotion. He has held ten solo exhibitions in London and Cornwall and participated in numerous mixed shows. His paintings can be found in a number of public collections including Pallant House, Chichester, The Falmouth Art Gallery and Anthony Petullo, Milwaukee, USA. 

Exhibition 33