Ashford School of Art & Design - degree show 2009

If you want to see the very best in young British art, get along to the ASAD show, which runs from Mon 15th to Fri 19th June. We especially liked the wax sculptures by Trish Bishop, the huge dystopic landscapes by Dee Taylor, and the disturbing ‘3 Stages of Becoming’ by M.A.L Huguet. Compared to the style-over-content art fairs we attend, this was refreshing indeed. Miss it at your peril!

ASAD Henwood Industrial Estate, Ashford, Kent TN24 8DR Tel:01233 642430 asad@southkent.ac.uk

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Jessica Stride on why colour is her inspiration

As far back as I can remember, I’ve had a love of colour and when I paint, this is always my first inspiration. The images are unplanned but evolve through balance and instinct and using colours that lift my spirit with their beauty. This series of paintings was influenced by my frequent visits to Devon and reflects the vibrant blues of the coastal area. My process is one of making continual decisions, some conscious, some intuitive which affect the final outcome. I aim to produce imagery that is ambiguous, with many layers, that reveals itself slowly and gradually to the viewer.
[Jessica Stride, May 2009]

See Jessica’s striking abstract and figurative paintings, including ‘Headland’ featured above, at the Cristus Gallery Summer Exhibition, from June 4th 2009.

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The Devotional Art of Julie-Ann Bowden

Julie-Ann’s work is special to us at ‘Cristus’, and has been part of our plans from the beginning. To know the artist, is to know her work. No doubt we are all shaped by our experiences, but whereas we might try to shroud ourselves in mystery, Julie-Ann proclaims her past, in her words and in her paintings. She openly tells of her difficult childhood, feeling like an outsider, being left-handed and writing backwards with her right hand. But always, she says, her artistic gifts saw her through, giving her solace and an inner confidence that there was something she could do well. In competitions at school she excelled at life drawing, then at A Level she achieved the highest grade in Graphic Design, followed by more success studying Illustration at The Northern School of Creative Art. She had overcome disadvantage and low expectations and she determined that one day she would become a full-time artist. This is the spirit that drives her art.

Cristus is not a faith-based gallery, but we admire the purity of vision that can come from absolute conviction. Something we do claim, however, is to be a contemporary gallery, which may seem at odds with Julie-Ann’s iconic angel paintings, clearly rooted in Christian imagery from medieval to pre-Raphaelite to American folk art. What’s more, in her desire to express ’pure love and beauty through art’, one may see a contradiction with a contemporary aesthetic that seeks to challenge the notion that beauty - if it can be found at all - somehow equates to quality. Certainly, it is an area to debate… and we have debated it here, long and hard. The result is that we have placed Julie-Ann in the same small space as the more-overtly challenging artworks, such as Jon Mayer’s dark and forbidding ‘Cor kack A Chavvy’ etchings. Contrast them. Both artists have something big to say, that they wish to share. See beneath the soft beeswax finish of Julie-Ann’s paintings, into the serene faces of the angels. See into their black eyes. Is this a vision of ‘pure love’?

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