currents

ways of seeing water

new paintings by Julian Bailey Luke Elwes

Vanessa Gardiner Janette Kerr PPRWA RSA Hon

furniture by Petter Southall

ceramics, sculpture and craft by leading artists and makers

Saturday 22 September – Sunday 11 November 2018

Whatever its mood, water in paintings can carry light, energy and a kind of soul. The four painters in currents are drawn to paint water again and again, for the joy of it, the power and ferocity of it, the contemplative force of it and for its deep unknowable mystery. Essential for life, but associated with danger, water plays a much greater role for all of us than we really realise. It seems likely to demand more of our attention in the future as the climate changes. To look at, it is of course endlessly fascinating both in reality and in the powerful two-dimensional illusion of art.

Bringing together the work of four eminent contemporary painters, currents will sweep you up into the tide of the present moment. For Janette Kerr, water is deeply dynamic, whipped up by the wind and portrayed in energetic expressionist brush strokes. Vanessa Gardiner’s water is often a well of opaque turquoise blue with geometrically divided areas of froth and shadow. Julian Bailey’s joyous seas seem to sparkle and move with thick impasto paint and quick gestural brush strokes. Luke Elwes’ Ganga paintings turn the surface of water into a shimmering meditation.

As a maritime warehouse, Sladers Yard has always been connected to the sea. It has been converted into a gallery and café by Petter Southall who started working wood as a boat builder and whose furniture is filled with the echoes of boat shapes and boatbuilding techniques. With the sea outside the door here at West Bay and water in all its forms on the walls, you are invited to dip in and immerse yourself in one artist’s vision after another.

The works in the exhibition are available to view on each of the artist’s pages. Please follow the links above. A selection is shown below to whet your appetite. If you would like to enquire about any of the artists’ work, please call 44 (0)1308 459511 or email us on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk