John Sims and the art of ‘useless maps’
August 24, 2010 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Maps are deadly serious things, the painstaking product of the cartographer’s scrutiny. Not so, for John Sims. He challenges their status as functional, documentary or even decorative artefacts. Why do so many people put them on their walls? Why, looking out to sea, does Sandgate seem more of a bay than the map suggests? What would a place look like if you fell on it from the sky? Well, John’s maps could provide the answers, or none at all. After all, they are ‘useless’.
As John says: ‘I love the way that at first glance they appear to be real maps, look closer and longer and you see that they are more or less abstract paintings… just marks, colours and lines…’
John’s inspiration for his map-making came from the time that he was Artist-in-Residence at the Cyprus College of Art. Working with archeologists, he would make oil-pastel reproductions of ancient finds from memory, adding to them until they took on new abstract forms.
‘Useless maps’ of Folkestone (featured above), Dover, Whitstable and Sandgate are currently on display at the Cristus Summer Exhibition, but if you would like a map of anywhere, John is ready to take commissions, at a fixed price of £150, framed. Please contact Deborah@cristus-gallery.com to place an order, or visit the exhibition.
Sphere: Related ContentCristus summer show our best ever!
August 24, 2010 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
A last look at the sea - gentle waves, turquiose and purple-grey, then back to the gallery for the final checks. Everyone expects everything to be right; and on this special evening it is. Then, it begins. Artists, clients, fellow business-owners, arts’ people, and dear friends - all relaxed and having fun. Deborah, the girl who makes it happen, the link that unites everyone. Perfect. And there are sales too! Red stickers that tell us that it’s all worthwhile, and the next show will be even better.
Thanks everyone.
Cristus Summer Exhibition 2010
August 14, 2010 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Cristus Gallery’s summer show begins with a private view on Saturday 21st August and runs until 18th September. On display will be new works from our established artists: Dee Taylor, Farid Aouni, Paul Bergin (featured above), John Sims, Tracey-Anne Pryke, Ian David Baker and Sarah Stokes.
Farid Auoni’s Impressions of Folkestone
June 9, 2010 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
There is something special about the light that falls on this fair corner of England. Artist friends are inspired by the huge skies above the channel, which seem to intensify the shapes and colours of the foreshore; but so often the land and seascape art we see is purely representational and, to be honest, a little dull.
That’s why Farid Auoni’s paintings appeal to us, because they bring a new vitality to the familiar local scenes that have been rendered a million times before. So Farid’s Old High Street bustles with life and colour, and his Leas and Kingsnorth Gardens bloom and spangle as they do from time to time. When asked, Farid says that this is just how they look to him. And one thinks of Renoir’s way of seeing Algiers through impression and imagination fused, and Farid returning the complement to Folkestone.
Farid’s paintings will be exhibited at Cristus throughout the summer, with new works planned for a special exhibition to coincide with the Sandgate Festival in August.
New artist ‘Bergy’ and the shadowy effects of light
May 18, 2010 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Cristus welcomes Paul Bergin to its summer season. The style is unashamedly impressionistic, with Cezanne cited as Paul’s main influence, but with clear references to Monet and Sisley evident too. The paintings are vibrant and immediate, but the opaqueness of Paul’s style gives the sense of landscapes that are transient, obscured by glare or fading in the evening light. The effect is romantic and evocative, rather than documentary, oweing much to Paul’s love of Turner’s big skies.
Paul Bergin (’Bergy’) will be exhibiting at the gallery throughout the summer.
Anna Phelps ~ ‘painting from memory and imagination’
November 10, 2009 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Cristus gallery is very pleased to welcome Anna Phelps to its winter exhibition. After two exhibitions of ideas’ paintings, we were looking for work that could complement in terms of technique and richness of palette, and we were also keen to leave the known world and all its troubles. Anna’s ‘Bacchus’, with its dark crimson, purple and golden hues, seemed the perfect painting to build the exhibition around. Like all of her work, it is highly stylised, theatrical and captivating.
The figures are calm and still but distracted, staring beyond the viewer as if frozen in a moment. It is as though they have stepped forward from their reality, to be painted. They comply.
Anna’s statement on her website http://www.annaphelps.co.uk explains how she arrived at such a distinctive style, by rejecting the trends of art teaching and production, in order to find a method of painting that comes naturally from within. The result is personal and spare, but never ‘primitive’, as the attention to detail is truly breathtaking. Come and see for yourself, at the winter exhibition.
Sphere: Related ContentVictoria Fontaine-Wolf ~ ‘ideal beauty’
November 10, 2009 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Victoria, good friend of Cristus, has twice been reviewed on this site and has for some time been available for portrait commissions at the gallery. This is, however, the first time that we have tempted her to exhibit, with two paintings in the winter exhibition. Both feature contemporary pre-Raphaelite subjects of exquisite charm and beauty. I say contemporary, because they are not the lost or fallen mid-Victorian females of the PRB; rather, in their contentment and demeanour, they are more representative of our times. Isabella (and the pot of basil), featured above, even wears Victoria’s own favourite dress, though painted in a style that would no doubt find Ruskin’s approval.
Sumptuous in colour and detail, elaborately framed, they look magnificent!
Philip Lee’s tempestuous ‘Deluge’ paintings
November 10, 2009 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Two large and dramatic canvases from Philip Lee form part of the Cristus winter exhibition. They come from the artist’s surrealist period, and have been carefully restored and framed at the gallery. Here’s what Philip has to say about his work:
‘The circular theme at the centre was the starting point of Deluge. The monalith and the pyramid have become more substantial, the monalith falling and the pyramid as if seen through broken glass. The bone-like structure in Subterranean has become a skeletal building or ship, and behind and through everything comes the deluge - of water or snow? Turner’s ‘Hannibal crossing the Alps has had an influence here. As with the whole series, Deluge is designed to be ambiguous; understanding the picture is intended to be as fluid as the picture is painted, and personal to the viewer’.
Deluge 2 is a development of the bottom left corner of Deluge. ‘The pyramid and shiplike structures have been combined in the building/ship structure on the left, while the monalith has been somewhat eroded. To its right a cascade of treasure pours from the destruction caused by the deluge of water’.
A time to reflect ~ Cristus winter exhibition - starts 30th October
November 9, 2009 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Please call the gallery for opening times, or to arrange a special appointment (01303 223005 or 07759 33 77 499)
Deep rich colours feature in our winter exhibition, with raku ceramics from Shaun Hall, digital art by Dan McCarthy and paintings by Anna Phelps (featured above), Philip Lee, Tracey-Anne Pryke, Saffron Eve, Dee Taylor, Sarah Stokes, Marjorie Wilson and Victoria Fontaine-Wolf.
Sphere: Related ContentVictoria Fontaine-Wolf and the art of portrait painting
July 21, 2009 by Quigley · Leave a Comment
Regular visitors of this website will recall how, back in April, I enthused about Victoria Fontaine-Wolf’s portrait ‘Sarah Reading’. Then, on a magical sunny morning at The Grand Hotel, Folkestone, I was captivated by her ‘painterly skill and graceful composition’; and now I return, to see a solo exhibition that spans four decades of sublime portrait painting.
Most of the paintings are of beautiful young women from good families, soft and composed, but there are also a number of portraits from Victoria’s travels. The unity of the show, however, comes from the calm dignity of the sitters. Whether they be Samburu tribespeople or London sophisticates, they are all treated with the same generous attention of the artist, who is keen to show their essential characters. And they are at ease because they know that they will be represented positively and in a manner in which they will always be proud.
There are drawings, watercolours, oils and pastels on display, with the latter being the most accomplished. As Victoria explains, the layering of pastel creates the play of light with pigment that gives the work its verisimilitude. This technique is far removed from the smudging that’s associated with much pastel work; it is light and crisp and sure.
Taking pride of place is the huge painting of Victoria’s daughter, Rebecca, herself an accomplished artist (see www.rebeccafontaine-wolf.com). It is fitting to see this in the Grand, though it would not be out of place above the drawing-room mantle in du Maurier’s eponymous novel. The classic pose and the exuburance of the satin against the coarse raw canvas, are typical of Victoria’s style.
Having Victoria as guide to her work was also revealing. She has painted all over the world, from the rich and famous to the interesting model or passer-by, but she is always playful and modest about her talents.
Now, here at Cristus, it is the turn of the Townsend children, Gabriel and Imogen, to be immortalised in pastel. They sit, still and happy, while Victoria keeps them alert and chatting. The result is that same blend of realism and idealised representation that I saw in ‘Sarah Reading’. The painting is of the children at their very very best, yet expressing an intimate sense of their characters. Wonderful.
Cristus are delighted to announce that Victoria Fontaine-Wolf is available for commissions. Please contact the gallery.
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