Collectors Selection

In May 2011  fifteen specially selected artists  exhibited.  We showed portrait sculpture from award winning artist Hazel Reeves, vibrant colourful paintings by Edwina Bracken and Lester Corzo and delicate traditional oils by Peter Lancaster. Diane Brandrett's gilded landscapes and trompe l’oeils and Alberto Martinez, surreal surprises attracted a lot of attention, as did the paintings of  Darvish Fakhr  and Aksorn+Pongtarin. John’s Baldwin's intricate narratives in wood captivated visitors and we had  beautiful ceramic and stoneware figures by Jackie and Lorna, and exquisitely framed sea life from Simon. As usual the garden was expanded by Jai. A special feature was the celebration of nonagenarian and ever youthful artist Cyril Mount with a special mini exhibition  showing a small selection of his work from the last 20 years along with  more recent paintings.

The Autumn 2011 Show include works by Alberto Martinez, Darvish Fakhr, Diane Brandrett, Edwina Bracken and Simon Royer.

Painting

Aksorn Rukpong
“I work as a painter. The majority of ideas for my work come from my fascination with the phenomenal qualities of light and my experience of being in different cultures and places.”
Aksorn has studied fine arts in Bangkok, Thailand and at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. Following her degree show in 2007 she was picked out for a London exhibition featuring best art work of postgraduates from London art colleges. She lived in Brighton for many years before moving back to Bangkok where she and her husband Pongtarin has a design study.  She has exhibited in Bangkok and continues to produce paintings for exhibition in UK. www.aksorn-pongtarin.co.uk

Alberto Martinez
Alberto was born in Cuba in 1977. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts 'Oscar Fernandez Morera', in Trinidad, Cuba, specializing in sculpture, design and cartoonism. After his Fine Arts degree he participated in numerous collective and solo exhibitions in Cuba. He also designed and produced billboards and general art works while in the army. He now lives and work in  Brighton where he has exhibited his distinctive work for several years. A master of the unexpected, Alberto brings surrealist wit and imagination to his adopted city, challenging our conventional views of our surroundings.www.albertomartinez.co.uk

Cyril Mount
Cyril Mount has been painting for over 70 years. He served in North Africa during the war and his paintings from this time are in the Imperial War Museum along with later commissioned work. Now retired from teaching art, he paints every day from his studio at the Phoenix in Brighton. A figurative painter, his work is always evolving - all life is there. He combines a sense of the serious and the mischievous and describes himself as a life-time rebel, now “almost reformed”. Most recently, his solo exhibition "Ruffling feathers" at University of Bradford (March 2010) brings together a collection of work highlighting the futility of war and the machinations of power, donated to the Department of Peace Studies.
www.cyrilmount.net

Darvish Fakhr
Darvish Fakhr trained at Museum School of Fine Art Boston and at Slade School of Fine Art in London. He moved to Brighton 15 years ago and has since been sourcing its people and surroundings for inspiration. Darvish has participated regularly in the BP Portrait Award and won the prestigious National Portrait Gallery Travel Award in 2004. His nine piece panel of the dancer Akram Kahn is now part of the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. His recent and hugely successful solo show in Tehran, The Nomadic Salon, was an attempt to distill in paint the multi-cultural aspects of his life: an orientalist trying to make sense of the East, and an occidentalist re-examining the West. www.darvish.com

Diane Brandrett
“My background is in cartography and technical illustration, both requiring a level of draughtmanship with an attention to detail and a need to convey visual information accurately. This has influenced the way that I approach my work.
My commissions range from portraiture to Trompe L'Oeil murals where the fun of deceiving the eye creates the illusion of reality. My present work is my interpretation of the beautiful Sussex landscape with its gently swelling curves and undulating form.
Love of light and pattern had led me into using gold leaf to help convey the warmth and ethereal quality of the majestic skies and rolling chalk lands of the South Downs.”

Edwina Bracken
Edwina graduated with an honours degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2000. She won the RDS Prize for Printmaking the same year.  She has exhibited in Ireland, England, Germany and Finland. Her work is represented in both public and private collections. 
Her path as an artist is led by instinct and inspiration from the places to which she has travelled. The re-occurring theme of Place, focused both on the natural and built environment, form the basis of her compositions. Edwina’s background in traditional, fine print techniques inform her exploration of the tactile qualities of acrylic and collage in her paintings.
Edwina lives and works in Brighton. www.edwinabracken.com

Lester Manuel Corzo
Lester graduated from the academy of fine arts "Oscar Fernández Morera (Trinidad. Cuba) in 2004, where he specialized in painting. From 2005 to 2008, he  taught paintng and drawing at the professional academy of fine arts "Beni More" in the province of Cienfuegos (Cuba). Here he participated in exhibitions in which he won several awards. In 2008 he moved to Trinidad, where he worked at the gallery "Area 452" and for "pulsart" in Denmark. He currently lives in Tilburg, in the Netherlands, where he works as an artist. His work can be found in private collections in Denmark, USA, Canada, France, Spain, England, Germany, Switzerland and Cuba. www.lestercorzo.com

Peter Lancaster
Peter was born and educated in Brighton. Following National Service in the RAF he combined a career in retail management with fashion illustration. Throughout his business career he continued his major ambition to sketch and paint. He has ben a regular exhibitor at the Sussex Artists Open Exhibition at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and his work, mainly landscapes and marines in oil, has been shown in galleries across Sussex. Peter's work is motivated by a desire to capture and convey the unique qualities of the Sussex atmosphere.

Pongtarin Bejrachandra
I work as an architect, painter and composer. I am interested in using concepts and processes from one art form to manipulate and create other art forms. In my recent work, I look for a way to communicate the beauty of hidden / unseen structures.”
Pongtarin studied architecture in Bangkok and Music Technology in Brighton before completing postgraduate studies at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. He now lives in Bangkok where he has a design studio with his wife Aksorn. He has exhibited in Bangkok and continues to produce work for exhibition in UK. www.aksorn-pongtarin.co.uk

Sculpture

Hazel Reeves NEW THIS YEAR
Hazel Reeves is a portrait sculptor - “Obsessed by faces, portraits are at the core of all my artistic practice. I am fascinated by how emotions and expressions flicker across the face, yet a person’s character resides more permanently, captured in the way features of the face form and age. How to capture this is what obsesses me“.  In 2010 Hazel received two prestigious awards: the Society of Portrait Sculptors’ Master Class Prize and the Falle Fine Art ‘Bronze’ Award. She is an elected member of the Society of Women Artists and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, exhibiting her work at London galleries and in the South of England including at RHS Garden Wisley. Hazel is based in Brighton. www.wiredandfired.co.uk

Jackie Summerfield
Jackie  is a  ceramic artist who  produces original figurative sculptural ceramics and also works to commission. Portrait busts, decorative wall panels and stylized animals form the basis of her works. www.jackiesummerfield.co.uk

John Baldwin
John Baldwin creates intricate and unique sculpted artwork in wood and has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad. John says of his current work : “Having worked for too long on large sculptural and architectural projects, mostly in glass reinforced plastic, it was with relief that I was able to devote time to developing ideas on a more intimate scale. In choosing wood as a medium I aim to achieve the desired result in the most direct manner".

Lorna Tyler
“My interest is in sculpting the human body shown through an exploration of the tender qualities of it’s forms, using the sensual medium of clay fired to stoneware. Since 2002 I have exhibited regularly, including at the Grace Barrand Design Centre, Nutfield, Surrey and at The Mall Galleries, London with The Royal Society of British Artists and with The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.”
www.lornatyler-sculptor.com

Photography

Jai Lusser
Jai is self taught as a photographer and creator of the Garden Expansion Kits – a series of weatherproof photographic prints designed to open up new and surprising horizons in even the smallest of gardens. Jai produces bespoke work on commission. www.gardenexpansionkits.co.uk

Mixed Media

Simon Royer
Simon Royer creates artworks inspired by the coastal environment. His inherent affinity with the natural world is combined with considerable creative and artistic talent to produce works which are striking in both their wide stylistic range and uniqueness. He works across a wide range of media including fine art, sculpture, installations, prints and photography to produce contemporary works of stunning originality. His most recent work include meticulously observed beachfronts painted from unusual perspectives in oil or acrylic. Simon has worked and exhibited his work in Brighton for many years, most recently from his gallery on the beach promenade. Simon also works to commission.
www.gallery94.co.uk


ARTISTS WHO HAVE EXHIBITED IN PREVIOUS YEARS

Alan Wickham
Alan studied art and graphic design at Eastbourne College of Art and Brighton Art College, and then went on to work as an art director for a London advertising agency. He started painting in 1995 and has produced drawings and cartoon work which has been featured in the national press. Alan is now working mainly on water colours from his Brighton studio.

Marie Prett
Marie is a ceramic artist whose influences include Chagall for his bold colours and original story telling and Klimt for his beautiful use of colour and pattern. Marie's passion is for the narrative in each piece; the story behind the smile and humorous pose.: "It is my constant aim to create an infusion of energy, movement, colour and humour into each piece; to inspire curiosity and make people smile". Marie exhibits regularly and is planning to open her own gallery. www.marieprett.co.uk 

Naomi Tydeman RI  
Naomi is an award winning  watercolourist and was elected to membership of the RI (Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour) in 2004.  She exhibits regularly at the Mall Gallery in London and have won several prestigious awards, including Welsh Artist of the Year watercolour prize and several RI prizes including the Winsor and Newton prize for the most outstanding group of paintings in this years RI show. Naomi has her own gallery in Tenby, Wales.  www.naomitydeman.co.uk

Pamela Leung  
Ceramic scupltor, born in Hong Kong and trained in England, who has exhibited extensively in Britain and abroad. Pamela’s work combines Chinese and Western influences and defies easy classification. Her sculptures are refreshingly playful and, like a good fable, each piece posesses a hidden moral.  

Jonathan Angell
Hands-on creative mechanical innovator who has exhibited world wide. Designer of special effects in film and theatre, including work for Harry Potter, Band of Brothers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He will be showing mechanical windmills at Collectors' Selection.