John Sims and the art of ‘useless maps’

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.

Cristus summer show our best ever!

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

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

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.

A time to reflect ~ Cristus winter exhibition - starts 30th October

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.

Power and intensity - ‘Fire’ by Tracey-anne Pryke

Joining our list of new artists for the Cristus Summer Exhibition is Hythe-based Tracey-Anne Pryke. Though she paints mainly figurative works, this abstract departure is an example of her extensive range. It is not a painting to be avoided. There is a physical presence here, as if the surface of the painting itself has been set ablaze. Chromatic oils burn and shimmer over the blackness. The sense of immediacy reminds me of Willem de Kooning and the ‘Action painters’ of the 1950s and 60s, as though the painter has just stepped back from the canvas, bespattered and breathless - and the painting continues to burn. It is a great contrast to Tracey-Anne’s meticulous portraits and seascapes, though all possess the same rich pallette and expressionistic verve. See them for yourself, online and at the gallery from June 4th.
* Tracey-Anne has just agreed to demonstrate her skills by painting at the gallery. Date to be confirmed.

Folkestone Collection at the Grand

The Folkestone Collection exhibition at the Grand Hotel, on the Leas, Folkestone, is an excellent and surprising example of the treasures held by many a provincial town’s art vaults.

We get Victor Pasmore, Peter Blake, Fred Cuming and Carel Weight. A mind altering, transcendental woodcut from Monica Poole, and an early 1970’s view of modern art that is all that modernism should be – hopeful for the future , vibrant, colourful and yet systematic and full of skill and craftsmanship.

The most significant thing we get though is a mighty blow for the print against the painting. Although there are some excellent paintings to be seen, it is the prints which really caught my attention.

Peter Blake’s prints – illustrations of scenes from Alice Through The Looking Glass - are like a distillation of everything good in 1970s England. I was transported into Blake’s world, which sat so beautifully with Lewis Carroll’s. I’m no Blake expert, but these seem his best works.

Weight’s massive painting of The Poet is a thing to behold. It is a game played with perspective, colour and juxtaposition of forms. I wouldn’t be surprised if it overtly refers to the poetry of its subject.

Victor Pasmore’s abstract print is a masterpiece. It has the sureness of composition and colour of his best work.

Everyone will have their favourites from this exhibition. To happen upon it is like rolling back a mossy boulder to reveal caverns of shimmering stalagmites. As someone who believes in the transformative power of art, I can say no more than that I came away inspired, resolving to apply the same levels of care, creativity and intelligence on show at the Grand to my own work.

The pieces might have been exhibited more accessibly. The tea rooms are a nice enough setting, but many of the prints are best appreciated at very close quarters, and not across a dining table.

This exhibition is highly recommended. Hurry, it runs until 5th May, 2009.

Folkestone Art Co-operative at The Grand

There could scarcely be a better place to view an exhibition of art than within the Palm Court of the genteel Grand Hotel, especially on a day when France revealed herself across the sparkling waters of the Channel. Such splendour, such gaiety, such temptation to take tea on the Leas, surely still the most elegant seaside promenade in the world.

Of Fontaine-Wolf’s paintings, ‘Tuscan Garden’ and ‘Sarah Reading’, the latter was the one that captivated. Until then, I confess that it was the architecture that held my attention, but the portrait of the young girl engrossed in fiction seemed both to stand out and belong. Yes, that’s it, it stood out because it belonged - stuck - defiantly - in that middle part of the twentieth century, between the Bloomsbury artists and Suez, or between the domestic servant and the hostess trolley. The world has changed, but The Grand, ‘Sarah Reading’ and Fontaine-Wolf it seems have not.

But despite this unease, I so admire the refinement of the painting. I am drawn into the intensity of the subject. Sarah is reading, and we are observing her. It is her space, all chintzy informality, beautifully observed in soft greys and apricots. Her cat elongates across the back of the chair, but she is rapt in concentration; and the immediate sense of calm repose is replaced by tension. It is the universal experience of the reader when the book takes hold. Yes, it’s been done many times before - and I especially recall Vanessa Bell’s ‘Interior with Artist’s Daughter’, but in The Grand’s imperial setting, I loved it.