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Derbyshire Contemporary Artists
We've found so many brilliant contemporary visual artists who live and work in Derbyshire, often depicting the Derbyshire landscape, that we've had to write a round-up of them all to showcase the huge variety of talent to be found around the county. It isn't very surprising that there was so much to be found considering the illustrious visual art heritage of the county. You can also look into Derbyshire's art past in our heritage artist round-up article.
If you are a Derbyshire-based contemporary visual artist and would like to be included in this round-up, let us know the web address of your artsderbyshire profile and drop us a line to tell us just how great you are to dap@artsderbyshire.org.uk.
Gareth Buxton
Gareth Buxton came into the art world relatively late in life. Born in Derby in 1967, it wasn't until 2004 when he was involved in a near-fatal car crash that he starting making the transformation into a serious artist. He began exhibiting his work properly in 2006, and has been regularly showing his work nationwide ever since, as well as exhibiting extensively in the local area. Although he is primarily known for his stormy landscapes that are frequently inspired by Derbyshire scenery, he also paints abstracts and creates unusual sculptures from found items, electronic and pseudo-biological, which are then embedded into the canvasses and boxes that he uses.
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On his artsderbyshire minisite, which you can view
here, Buxton describes his landscapes in his
own words:
"My view of the local Derbyshire landscape is often stormy, rainy and indistinct; people, buildings and other details rarely feature in my work, as I prefer to allow the voices of hills, sea, rain and light to speak for themselves."
If you're interested in seeing Gareth Buxton's work up close, his exhibition, named "Moor, Moon and Sea- Paintings by Gareth Buxton" is on at Tarpey Gallery at Castle Donnington until the 26th June 2010. For more information visit the listing in our What's On guide.
As well as being an artist much in demand, he somehow finds the time to update his website, garbleart.co.uk, his two blogs: garbleart.blogspot.com for painting and organicfleshmachine.blogspot.com for sculpture. He also tweets, and you can follow him at twitter.com/garbleart.
David Turner
The pieces created by David Turner are highly unusual, fashioned out of iron, mild steel, stainless steel and bronze. Working as a blacksmith artist, Turner is inspired by organic forms and this is very clear in the natural shapes he produces. He trained on the leading full-time blacksmith course in whole of Europe, Hereford College, before going on to work on hugely diverse projects, from a giant titanium wind sculpture to working on the restoration of Windsor Castle. On his artsderbyshire minisite, which you can visit here, he explains the process of creating his works:
"Each piece is heated to almost melting, battered, hammered, twisted, bent and wrought until it
settles into it's final resting place, whether that is in the form of a four meter tall garden
sculpture or a six inch wall hanging.
The materials are at the same time solid and permanent yet flexible and yielding."
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His work is designed especially for each customer to fit exactly the place in which the piece is to occupy. His work inhabits both the home and the garden, and can be functional or simply decorative. The pieces range from colossal to tiny, and any size in between. He makes candlesticks, bowls, banisters, railings, bedsteads and a whole range of other items. To view slideshows of this work in their chosen places, visit David Turner's website at www.davetheblacksmith.co.uk/.
Emma Tooth
Although she originally came from Cambridge, Emma Tooth now lives in Belper, and works as a highly successful oil paint portrait artist with great critical acclaim. Her subjects are often the ordinary people of Britain, but her works employ chiaroscuro, the use of contrasting light and dark in paintings made famous by Caravaggio, which make the common people depicted appear heavenly. The subjects are also captured in traditional religious poses, further echoing Caravaggio's work, which was similarly created using ordinary people as models.
Tooth exhibits nationally and abroad, showing her work in such varied places as The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the International Tattoo Convention, which takes place in Derby. She has worked on some very high-profile projects such as Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Mam Tor's Event Horizon, an award-winning graphic novel anthology. She sells her existing works, takes on commissions, and teaches adult art classes at Murray Park School. If you're interested in being taught by her she is running a two day painting course at Pear Tree Farm in Matlock from 2nd-3rd November 2010. See the listing in our What's On guide for more details.
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You can visit her website at www.emmatooth.co.uk to see her paintings, download free desktop wallpapers of her work and read critical praise of her work, as well as watch the new documentary capturing Emma Tooth's Concilium Plebis project.
In addition, you can see Emma Tooth go "head to head" with 18th Century master Joseph Wright of Derby in an exhibition at the Derby City Museum and Art Gallery, which involves an exhibition of the two artists' work side by side, displaying subjects from the city of Derby over 200 years apart. Alongside the museum curators, Tooth has chosen what Wright paintings will be displayed beside her own, throwing a whole new light on the works of both artists. If you would like to read more about Joseph Wright of Derby, take a look at our artist heritage article. There will also be a special performance at the opening by dance team Trinity Warriors. The exhibition opens the evening of July 2nd and runs until September 12th 2010.
Victoria Brown
Victoria Brown creates stunning paintings from gold leaf, acrylic and sequins. One of her series of paintings is called 'Hanami', the name for a Japanese cherry blossom viewing party, and it is easy to see why, looking at her work; blossoms feature in a big way along with beautiful gold painted mosaic backgrounds. And yet her inspiration for these Japanese style works is much closer to home, taken from the blossoms and plants around Derbyshire. On her website, which you can visit here, she says of her own work:
“It’s so uplifting to be surrounded by blossoms in the spring, I just had to respond to them. I spent time walking around the village taking photos and sketches of the blossom. Standing under the trees, looking up at the overlapping of petals and leaves, the bright sunlight shining through, it’s amazing. I love the way it floats off the trees in a breeze, gathers on the floor like snow and floats in puddles after the rain. I was delighted to discover that the Japanese celebrate the arrival of blossom with cherry blossom viewing parties and festivals, I too could stand under a tree and watch it all day.”
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Brown is also influenced by her upbringing, in which she was surrounded by lace. Her family has been involved in lace manufacturing since the nineteenth century and this attention to the details of nature can be seen in her works.
Another project of she works on is Love Heart Publishing, which publishes handbound
limited edition storybooks for children written by Victoria Yates, which Brown illustrates. Visit
Brown's website at
www.victoriabrownart.com for more information on her
collections and exhibitions.
Best of the Rest
Emma Parkins, who works under the name Junky Monkey, creates art using recycled and natural materials. Having worked as an artist and illustrator since 1997, Parkins has sold her designs worldwide and taught in adult education. Five years ago she became a community artist and runs ethical arts workshops that encourage people to think about the environment, working in schools and the community. Visit her website at http://www.junkymonkey.co.uk/ .
As an architecture student, Nicky Ward is heavily influenced by the urban environment, and her art reflects buildings and the artist's emotional response to them. She uses discarded materials and embroidered fabric in her work, as well as strong colours, plenty of texture and composite image techniques to build up a complex collage. She currently runs workshops in schools to engage young people in architecture. Visit her website at http://www.nickywardart.co.uk/ .
Sandy Hillyer paints the changing moods of nature, using acrylic on canvas to create atmospheric semi-abstracts inspired by the landscape. She has exhibited widely across the UK, including London and Birmingham. She also recently exhibited at Derbyshire Open Arts, which you can read more about here , in May 2010. Visit her website at http://www.sandyhillyer.com/ .
Laura Ellen Bacon's work is very site specific, focusing on sculpture in landscapes, cityscapes and interiors, following a theme of nesting. Bacon weaves her materials around existing structures, and her work can often be seen in public places. Check out her website at http://www.lauraellenbacon.com/ to see examples of her intriguing work.
Ghislaine Howard was named "Woman of the Year" for her contribution to art and society, and has received favourable critical attention for over two decades. Famous for her groundbreaking exhibition of pregnancy and birth themed paintings, created while she was artist in residence at St. Mary's Hospital Maternity Unit in Manchester. She now runs the Ghislaine Howard Studio Gallery in Glossop, where she exhibits her work and runs art courses and special events. You can find out more about her on her website http://www.ghislainehoward.com/ .
Other Heritage articles in this series ;
Source Materials for This Article:
www.garbleart.co.uk/
www.davetheblacksmith.co.uk
www.artsderbyshire.org.uk/find_artist/minisites/Turner/
www.emmatooth.co.uk
www.emmatooth.co.uk/news.html
www.artsderbyshire.org.uk/whats_on/events/classical_portraits_in.html
www.victoriabrownart.com/
www.junkymonkey.co.uk/
www.nickywardart.co.uk/
www.sandyhillyer.com/
www.lauraellenbacon.com/
www.ghislainehoward.com
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