Ground Floor Exhibitons

Tuesday 26 July - Saturday 20 August 

Claire Spencer RBSA
Claire Spencer ARCA, RBSA, PS – best known as a landscape painter working en plein air – presents a series of still life paintings inspired by fruit and vegetables from her local farm shop. After decades working in pastel and watercolour, Claire returned to oil painting in her eighties, starting with meticulous colour mixing studies. When lockdown hit in Spring 2020, she had the idea of a farm-shop calendar and each month, Claire painted the seasonal produce. The result is a series of vibrant paintings following the changing colours of the season.










 

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Mathe Shepheard RBSA
This exhibition shows a collection of pieces of glass built up over many years. The initial inspiration dates from Mathe Shepheard’s degree in Ceramic and Glass at the then Birmingham Polytechnic and the accolade she received from her glass display.

An in-depth study of the glass of Rene Lalique was followed by an MPhil on the 19th-stained glass firm of Hardman and Co, closely linked to A.W.N Pugin.

Shepheard purchased a glass kiln a year before COVID, which allowed her to explore flat glass: fused, in one or more firings, moulded, deconstructed, and experimented with, fired with additions of extraneous materials such as metals, organic matter, salts, lustres and oxides.

Flat glass has its limitations and yet it proves to be full of possibilities hence the variety shown here.

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Tina Willis-Jones RBSA
In her portraits, Tina Willis-Jones aims to achieve a good likeness while at the same time striving for a psychological depth to her work. Working from life enables her to bring an emotional intelligence to her work by engaging more closely with her sitters and their energy.

Her self-portraits are an important part of her practise as they are an opportunity for a practical exploration, but also as part of an ongoing journey of personal, emotional reflection. Each sitting becoming a time for quiet questions and self-contemplation.