Material World, an Exhibition
- Date 31 October 2024 - 12.00 p.m. - 14 November 2024 - 6.00 p.m.
- Location Kendrew Barn
31 October - 14 November
12PM - 6PM Weekdays
10AM - 6PM Weekends
Artworks on vellum, canvas, board and paper, using pigment, gum arabic, sea water, mud and wax. In this exhibition, Mary Chamberlain and Tim Steward share their love of the materials intrinsic to their working practices.
Material World explores the significance of experimenting with particular materials to capture mood and feeling. This is an invitation to stop, pause and step aside from some of the virtual pace of things and consider the material world of rock, sea, skin / animal, vegetable and mineral.
Mary Chamberlain
Experienced as a creative practitioner working with people who have experienced trauma, torture, stress and the extremities of the lived experience, Chamberlain is well accustomed to the power of artworks to create opposing spaces of well-being, beauty and delight. Exploring mark-making on vellum and examining the response of different materials to surfaces, the lightness of touch of her mark-making acts in contrast to the enduring legacy and authority of vellum and other grounds. The lines of her artwork are often fractured from the form of the piece, creating a sense of dynamism within the held image.
Mary Chamberlain (BA (Hons) University of the Arts Fine Art Painting): artist interested in conveying a sense of the caught moment, often isolating images against an unmarked background to allow space around individual marks.
Exhibitions and commissions in 2024 include Placed at Dorchester Abbey, the Annual Fry Art Gallery Exhibition and Sale and a large-scale mural commission in a private home.
Tim Steward
Focussing primarily on artwork created on the wild north Atlantic coast of Cornwall, Steward shares large scale as well as intimate seascapes using a variety of media and materials. Burning wax onto the canvas or board using sea water and found materials such as clay, mud, sand and charred wood, he applies marks with his hands and large brushes to create striking visual effects. Combining measured observation with working spontaneously at speed is at the heart of his painting and drawing technique. In contrast to his Oxford architectural pieces (also on show) with their expressive use of charcoal and raw pigment, these seascapes offer a view into a different type of materiality and state of flux.
Tim Steward studied classical drawing and painting at Lavender Hill Studios in London. Steward is currently represented by Darl-e and the Bear and has work on permanent display in the Old Parsonage Hotel in Oxford and Rick Stein’s in Marlborough.