CONTEMPORARY FINE ART EXHIBITION AT THE 1066 ACADEMY AT:- THE 1066 ART ACADEMY AND GALLERY, (above Costa Coffee Shop), 11 High Street, Battle, TN33 0AE OPEN:- 11.00am to 5.00pm ON :- WEDS TO SUNS, 4th to 29th June, 2014. The 1066 Art Academy and Gallery in Battle High Street, plays host to The Contemporary Fine Art Exhibition. A must-see exhibition - a diverse showcase of media, subject and style - figurative to abstraction. So to give you a sneak preview here is an offering of the artists and their work - The name’s BOND - Billie Bond - sculptor extraordinaire. She is inspired by art from the past especially broken ancient artifacts from forgotten civilizations which, when displayed in contemporary light are often given new meaning. To see her piece of Mother and Child at her breast “A Link With the Past” carved in a sphinx like pose is mind blowing. Not surprisingly this was an award winning piece that was recently showcased at the Strarta Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London. In 2009 Billie sculpted for the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square, as part of Anthony Gormley’s “One & Other”. To see more of Billie’s work, as an appetiser to this exhibition, go to www.billiebondart.com and www.essexsculpture.co.uk. Sue Barnes’ work is all about place, memory and imagination. She draws from Fairy Tales, memories invoked by old family photographs, juxtaposing those images with her own memories of places - corners of a garden, trees and hidey holes, peopled with pets and conjured animals and creatures of imagination. As well as being selected and shown in many National Open Competitions and London Art Galleries Sue was awarded the Alan Davie Print Prize in 2003. Sue’s website - www.suebarnes.org.uk Carole Robson, as a Kent artist, her work is focused on meadows and wild areas of that beautiful county that is known as ‘the garden of England’ . Her work reflects her love of the natural environment together with an experimental approach to painting - here is her explanation - I use my ipad with the sketching app ‘Brushes‘ (used recently by David Hockney) and Artstudio as an additional tool to create experimental pieces. Manipulating colour and texture by layering - there are so many potential variants to making my new piece of original digital art. Mind bogling!!! For more information on Carole’s diverse art activities go to www.carolerobson.com For something different? Dizzy’s your girl. Dizzy by name and Dizzy by nature - she says so herself, but her real name is Raewyn Pragnell. Her work is principally an exploration of structure, form and tone based on reality. And here’s the good bit! It looks at issues regarding the shared consumption of food and the memory it evokes, freely bridging the idioms of abstraction and representation by using every day ingredients such as fruits and vegetables. Using similar techniques to the ancient Egyptians, the overlapping thinly sliced fruit or vegetable become laminated to create a unique paper - Papyrus. Unique indeed. Intrigued? You should be. For further explanations - see Dizzy’s website - www.dizzypragnellprints.co.uk You won’t believe it but Anne Barrell used to be a London Bus driver before she turned her hand to pottery. She now makes handcrafted and printed ceramics. Her pieces are inspired by British Ceramics and Maritime heritage. Obvious inspiration is the St. Ives artist Alfred Wallis. Her new Shell Range, showing surface texture will be shown at this eclectic group exhibition. To see more of Anne’s very popular work and what she’s up to in an around town and further afield. go to www.annebarrell.co.uk Kate Schuricht is an established ceramic artist working in raku and stoneware. After graduating Kate was selected for an international ceramic residency in Japan. In 1998 Kate was awarded the coveted Crafts Council Setting Up Grant and is now a professional member of the Crafts Potters Association. Kate’s work is in many public and private collections worldwide eg, British Airways, British Embassy in St. Petersburg, Craftspace and Cowley Manor. Her work is very highly sort after and Kate combines a contemporary feel and delicate colouring with subtle patterning www.kateschuricht.com Another Kate - this time Kate Penoyre hailing from Sussex. Her work is firmly rooted in a landscape tradition and makes pictures about places that have resonance and meaning. She explores the drama that changing light and weather create. The paintings and screenprints that result from working outdoors and later in the studio are very personal, often colourful, interpretations of what she sees around her. And if you know Kate I’m sure you will agree that her work is very much like her! www.katepenoyre.co.uk Mary Beaney, is an award winning artist and founder of Art on the River and co-founder of Chalk Gallery Lewes. Mary has been diligently extending the theme of By-Gone Days utilising her own family photographs both vintage and victorian discovered in an inherited victorian family photograph album dating from the 1850’s. The paintings portray narrative secret undertones described as figurative abstraction using bold yet muted colours. Underlying the surface of Mary’s work are layers of various media such as polyfilla, glue, tissue paper, salt, ink, sand anything that can be collaged and cemented with acrylic paint with a hint of graffiti as well as monoprints with a ‘twist’ - www.artontheriver.co.uk Last but not least - Vincent Matthews. Being profoundly deaf since birth he was drawing before he could talk. A ‘lifetime’ working in architectural interior design gave him the grounding and then the impetus to pursue his love of Art ‘full time’. Vincent is inspired by the landscape, old wonky sheds, old boats and old buildings in and around Rye, with history leaving its mark. The vast skies and the barren eerie landscape in Dungeness in particular captivate him. Sketching in situ is exhilarating and gives Vincent a real buzz - this is the starting point of his inimitable etchings which derive from his strong drawing background. www.vincentmatthewsart.co.uk This exhibition is curated by Lesley Samms - Pure Art www.pureartsgroup.co.uk/www.purefineart.org.uk and Strarta Art Fair London www.strarta.com and co-ordinated by Mary Beaney - www.artontheriver.co.uk