Just back from the BIC and the Bournemouth Art Collective's exhibition, a very mixed group but some real talent was evident. I'll cover each of the four artists on display in the order I saw them.
Matthew Cohn
From the brief bio available it's clear that Matthew is well travelled, but this is pretty evident in his artwork as some of the style echoes Japanese work I've seen while retaining some strong European influences. I also felt a sense of innocence and dreams to his work with a recurring delicate girl and a blending of colour that gave me the impression of impermanence. My favourite among the displayed works was Vanquished, the image to the left is another of his that he has kindly allowed me to publish here.
Gail's work is very different and at a distance they could be mistaken as photographs. Covering some very well known images the multi-layered paintings create a softness to the images that in no way detracts from the quality. Though mostly done in black and white the few that include other colours are equally skilfully handled. Personally I felt her 'Photopop' style was very effective. I particularly liked Times Square, Lemmy and the Godfather.
Dean previously worked in oils though he is now working digitally. I had the opportunity to speak with him at the exhibition and it was great to have the chance to hear his thoughts about his work. Some of his abstract work was a little too controlled for my taste but among them I liked #18 which has a wonderful feeling of chaos in a very clean lined piece of work. Among his portraits #36 and #40 caught my eye with a sense that the colours were bring out the aura or personality of the subjects. Finally I should highlight #41 which I spent quite a while looking at. The odd colours and deep black eyes in this one make the whole thing feel slightly sinister, almost as though the colour was bleeding off and corrupting the painting, the result was quite startling.
Different again were Stewart's works, a blend of pen, watercolour and collage to create some very distinctive work. The blend of watercolour and collage included in the works contrasted starkly with some very precise pen work and text which was excellent. In other places such as with Persuassion the pen work felt slightly overwhelming, though I suspect that was intended. By far my favourite was Under Clear Blue Skies.
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