Wednesday 3 May 2017

Precision of Thought, SE9 Container Gallery, London

Curated by Matthew Macaulay, Classroom, Coventry

Artists include
Louisa Chambers, Chris Daniels, Lisa Denyer, Andrew Graves, Trevor Sutton, James Faure Walker, Jonathan Waller, Anthony Whishaw, Gary Wragg

To draw is to make an idea precise. Drawing is the precision of thought.
Henri Matisse

James Elkins in correspondence with John Berger wrote that drawing is the ‘invaluable record of the encounter of a moving, thinking hand with the mesmerising space of potential forms that it simply called a “blank sheet of paper”.’ Drawing was once considered in the Western academic tradition, to be the foundation of art education, and the mother of all the arts. The importance placed on drawing has been abandoned by most art schools as an irrelevant activity of a time past. John Elderfield in 1982 described drawing as the most resistant of all the modern arts to define. This exhibition takes its focus from the way in which eight painters individually approach drawing. 

Images of some of the artworks in the exhibition below:

Artworks by Louisa Chambers
Jazzy II, Louisa Chambers

Innermost, Louisa Chambers
Folded Form I, Louisa Chambers
Artwork by Trevor Sutton
Artwork by Andrew Graves
Artworks by Chris Daniels

Precision of Thought, SE9 Container Gallery, London


Curated by Matthew Macaulay, Classroom, Coventry


Artists include
Louisa Chambers, Chris Daniels, Lisa Denyer, Andrew Graves, Trevor Sutton, James Faure Walker, Jonathan Waller, Anthony Whishaw, Gary Wragg

To draw is to make an idea precise. Drawing is the precision of thought.
Henri Matisse

James Elkins in correspondence with John Berger wrote that drawing is the ‘invaluable record of the encounter of a moving, thinking hand with the mesmerising space of potential forms that it simply called a “blank sheet of paper”.’ Drawing was once considered in the Western academic tradition, to be the foundation of art education, and the mother of all the arts. The importance placed on drawing has been abandoned by most art schools as an irrelevant activity of a time past. John Elderfield in 1982 described drawing as the most resistant of all the modern arts to define. This exhibition takes its focus from the way in which eight painters individually approach drawing.

John Berger in his essay Life-Drawing (1960) wrote that ‘drawing is discovery’, for Gary Wragg often drawing is used in a way that opens new discoveries. Bryan Robertson stated in 1979 that in ‘his best paintings art seems to take images from his inner life by surprise, and it is Wragg’s strength as an artist that he transforms the elusive event into a rich visual celebration’. James Faure Walker works digitally and with water based paint on a loose sensual level, concentrating on what the paint and colour is doing and trying to discover a kind of unity within the artwork. For Walker and Wragg, there is an intention for the works to be deliberately ambivalent and open for interpretation, structured so they can be pieced together by the spectator’s imagination in several ways. The structures and figures in Andrew Graves work hover over off-white grounds, there is often a suggestion of an interpretation, a collapsed or dismantled box, an architectural model, a building, but it also suggests and engages with the speed or slowness of its making, provisional attempts at structure, and a reflection on colour theory.

In Anthony Whishaw’s work there seems to be a constant ‘knife edge’ between figuration and abstraction, the works offer 'a parallel experience to reality rather than a description of it'. This parallel experience can be seen in the two drawings on show, they offer up to the viewer’s eye several readings. The works on show seems to conjure up a kind of architectural space, such as doors, corridors and windows. These created spaces animate the surface and direct the eye in and out of the surface of the paper. Louisa Chambers has also been using drawing as a means of discovery. Drawing’s role has started to be a catalyst for the development of new areas of investigation. Her latest works on paper have been produced from a series of temporary sculptures that she has drawn from. These initial drawings became water based paintings, in the transformation between the drawing and painting a synthesis happens on the card that makes the art work something completely surprising and new. In the English language, the word draw comes from the old Saxon word dragan which means to drag. Lisa Denyer articulates the surface and space within her works by dragging elements such as card or painted paper across the surface into place. Denyer does not have any initial idea sketched out, she builds the painting up through improvisatory acts.

In his 1857 book The Elements of Drawing John Ruskin wrote, ‘everything that you see, in the world around you, presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colours, variously shaded.’ Trevor Sutton has been working on paintings lately that are like breaths of colour. He creates small working drawings, and then delicately works on the final painting improvising and making changes as he proceeds. Chris Daniels makes small drawings in paint that act as peremptory sketches for some of the more designed paintings, these concentrate on the arrangement of marks and the colour interaction. The drawings in the exhibition by Jonathan Waller come from a body of work called ‘The Seven Ages of Man’. Both pieces in the exhibition are on paper, and have some level of painting involved within their process. Many preparatory drawing are made to formulate an idea and through this research an idea for a final image is arrived at. Waller starts by working in charcoal, creating an initial composition of the figure, he then uses a water based paint to create the beginning of the areas of colour. This obliterates the charcoal drawing until only a fraction of it is left. He then builds up the drawing with fine pastels, gradually refining the drawing.

St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive School
Footscray Road, Eltham London, SE9 2SU
Open Saturdays during term time, 11-3pm

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Unlimited Imprint


Unlimited Imprint is a journal of visuality that sits within the shifting dissemination of images and ideas today.
The works and letters in this PDF publication are designed to be printed at home and once printed are an original artwork within an unlimited edition.

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Anyone who signs up to receive Unlimited Imprint can access, print and take ownership of the content, including editing and redistributing.

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Magical Geometry, Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk, Lancashire

28th January - 25th March 2017

What do we think of when we hear the word geometry? A sharp shape and a clean line?

Works produced with a ruler and a steady hand certainly feature in this group show, but visitors will also discover pieces that play with the dynamic qualities associated with this ancient term.

The resulting exhibition is a celebration of shape, symmetry and pattern – the mysterious magic of geometry.

Exhibiting Artists: Emma Bennett, Louisa Chambers, Damian Cruikshank, Stephen Cunliffe, Lisa Jones, Collette Lilley, Jim Milner, Arthur Roberts and Jason Thompson.

See below for installation views from the exhibition.  


Artworks by Emma Bennett


Artwork by Louisa Chambers


Artworks by Louisa Chambers


Artworks by Louisa Chambers


Artworks by Jason Thompson


Artwork by Arthur Roberts


Artworks by Emma Bennett


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Artworks by Louisa Chambers


Artwork by Louisa Chambers


Artwork by Louisa Chambers


Artwork by Louisa Chambers


Artworks by Emma Bennett


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Artwork by Arthur Roberts


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Artwork by Jason Thompson


Razzle Dazzle, Transition Gallery, London


Craig Fisher / Louisa Chambers / Rob Flint

25 November – 17 December 2016

Closing Event with a performance by Rob Flint

Saturday 17 December 3-6pm

The collaborative exhibition, Razzle Dazzle takes as its starting point Dazzle Camouflage, credited to artist Norman Wilkinson where, ‘military vessels were painted with strong geometric patterns and bold contrasting colouration so as to misinform U-boat captains bent on attack. The intention was optical deception: to mislead the eye and manipulate visual perception.’ (Gil McElroy, The Uses of Abstraction)

Artists Craig Fisher, Louisa Chambers and Rob Flint each employ pattern within their practice as a form of pictorial disruption, interruption and spatial collapse. Initially to start the dialogue each artist will work site-specifically by making work directly on the gallery walls. Over the duration of the exhibition each artist will develop work by responding to the space and each other; artworks will butt up against each other, they may be shown on top of each other making individual practices both indistinguishable and jarring. As the space begins to evolve, as well as adding, interjections will be made where artworks will be removed or displaced. The artists are interested in further crossovers, which will be made during a marked time frame, the possibilities of pattern disruptions and figure/ground painting relationships within the gallery space.

Works in the exhibition are concealed within the overall dazzle effect of the installation producing interesting juxtapositions and correlations.

The exhibition follows on from a public residency at the Harley Gallery in the East Midlands.

There were two main installation collaborative points during the exhibition. Images taken from stage one:





















Only This, Dear, Gallery No.1, Repton, Derbyshire

10th November – 16th December
PV Saturday 3rd December, 5- 7 pm
Gallery No.1, Repton School, Repton, Derby DE65 6FH

Only This, Dear features a selection of artworks made by Louisa Chambers during a four year period as Artist-in-Residence at Repton School.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2007 Louisa has had a studio based practice with an inquiry into expanded Painting practice. This has been predominately through painting and more recently moving image, sculpture and wall painting that considers installation approaches in Fine Art. 

Installation images taken of the exhibition: