Deborah Mitchelson and Brian Tew’s work complements and contrasts with each other. This joint exhibition is a natural progression of the shared creative space they have used for the last ten years.
Deborah Mitchelson
This exhibition is the work of an artist whose experience of walking on the South Downs informs her practice. During the last two years when we have all spent a lot more time at home, she has been concentrating on the smaller spaces – the garden. Mapping states of mind as well as creating a unique sense of place, Deborah presents her vision of the world.
Colour is used intuitively and as a celebration of life. Colour excites her imagination. She embroiders lines suggesting contours on maps or the route of her walks.
Memories, experience and our imagination influence the way in which we perceive the world. Deborah’s painting hover between a real and illusionary, imagined world.
Deborah is inspired by nature to make pots relating to the landscape. Contour lines and paths appear in her work, as well as a reference to maps. She uses porcelain paper clay or ashraf hanna depending on what she is hand building. White glaze makes the form purer and the pit fired pots and large stones might be something one would come across in the landscape.
Follow Deborah on Instagram here.
Brian Tew
I am a qualified chartered architect now retired who has been working in ceramics and other art forms over the past 50 years. I feel that there should be no divisions or barriers between any of the artistic disciplines, and anything that breaks the barriers and mixes the media is a legitimate process in achieving the final created piece of work.
My ceramics and sculptures are mainly unplanned, intuitive and eclectic. The work is formed in stoneware and earthenware. Some are fired with glazes and oxides in a gas reduction kiln or an electric kiln, others are fired in a Raku kiln or by using an earth pit firing. The piece is then assessed and, if necessary, I then add other mixed media to the ceramic sculpture to complete the work. I now also create 2D digital art work using vibrant colours or black and white to create abstract or representational forms printed on fine art quality archival paper.
I rarely plan my art work or sketch out a preliminary design. I just start with the raw clay or blank digital canvas and let the material or imagination take me along the creative path. Sometimes it works and other times I struggle, but I keep going adjusting and redesigning as I go until I’m satisfied that I’ve achieved something I think is worthwhile.
The only aim is to create a piece of art that has an aesthetic appeal; with ceramics a suggestion of antiquity and sculptural form, and with my digital work an energising contemporary sense.
Follow Brian on Instagram here.
Tuesday – Saturday // 10.00 – 17.00
