Beneath The Surface, 2015

Beneath the Surface was held at The Project Space, Newport - previously an empty shop converted into a gallery space, shop and performance venue.
It was curated by artist Stephanie Roberts.

The regeneration of Newport city centre was the inspiration behind my series of mixed media paintings. I wanted to do something different to Lost Connections, taking clues from some of the paintings - as in, exploring new ways to apply colour and texture without the constraints of representation.

I was researching artists Sandra Blow (1925-2006), Peter Lanyon (1918–1964), Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) and Japanese philosophy Kintsugi.
These artists use landscape as a starting point to become abstract painters - this is becoming more interesting to me especially after seeing an exhibition at Oriel y Bont: 'Towards Abstraction' which featured work by John Selway and Ernest Zobole amongst others.

At first, I made sketches of the construction site from the vantage point of The Chartist Tower and the photography archive of developers Bowmer & Kirkland. 
I produced a series of 15 paintings that were displayed on top of the painted metal gate that once stood at the site entrance, rather than fixed to a wall. Each painting is 30cm * 30cm, Oil, Paper and Gold Leaf on Canvas. 

Artists that took part included: Barrie Morgan, Jo Haycock, Tanya Whittaker, Mr and Mrs Clark, Jo Haycock, Dino Roveretti, Emma Wheeler and Bill Chambers.