Thoresby Exhibition of Landscape Paintings and Ceramic Sculpture

Yesterday I delivered paintings to the Thoresby Gallery for my solo exhibition,  ‘Light & Line in the Landscape‘, which starts on Tuesday. Cynthia has been hanging the paintings today, alongside a small selection of my ceramic sculptural works. There are over 40 paintings, drawn from a range of locations, reflecting the contrasting themes in landscape painting that I love – urban and countryside, man-made and natural environments, the large-scale versus intimate detail.

The eye instinctively follows patterns, looking for focal points within our visually rich surroundings. As a painter with an interest in buildings, I enjoy following man-made features of a landscape that repeat into patterns – be they the obvious rhythms of windows and doors or details of corbels, keystones, drip molds, fence posts and so on.  I like to give equal weight to both the general and the particular in my work. Leaves can have as much if not more of the limelight as cathedrals.

Susan Isaac - Southwell Minster

Susan Isaac – Southwell Minster from Hill House Field

The natural world contains alternative varieties of subtle and intriguing pattern making, from the distinctive gesture of a scoured cave to the lie of the grass. In making this painting of Tintagel I explored new methods of mark making, which offer interesting potential for future work.

Susan Isaac - Tintagel Isthmus from Barras Nose

Susan Isaac – Tintagel Isthmus from Barras Nose

Posted in Cornwall, Landscapes, Seascapes, Southwell Minster, Thoresby Gallery, Tintagel | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New work of Botallack, Cornwall

This is one of a group of paintings I’ve been working on of ‘The Crowns’ engine houses at Botallack in Cornwall. I love this highly vertiginous viewpoint of the remains.  Its a view that has led me to experiment with increasing the physicality of the oil paint – letting the paint have stronger presence. I may take this further in later canvases. Although the Cornish sea and sky are summer blue, the paintings are quite dark and I wanted to push the contrasts as far as possible, with the inlet of turbulent white waters at the base of the cliffs breaking up the landmasses, both visually and literally.

Susan Isaac - The Crowns Engine Houses at Botallack, Cornwall

Susan Isaac – The Crowns Engine Houses at Botallack, Cornwall

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My Rufford Abbey Paintings at the Rufford Spring Exhibition

I have a series of paintings at Rufford Park in the Creative Greenhouse spring exhibition, which opened last weekend. 

Susan Isaac - Rufford Abbey from the North

Up until now, when painting Rufford, I have chosen to use square compositions, so when I began these paintings it was exciting to refresh the viewpoint by utilising an exaggerated landscape format, which allowed the inclusion of more of the surrounding elements.

Susan Isaac - Rufford Abbey from the South EastThe Park surroundings are such an integral part of the visual experience at Rufford, with the placement of trees and open areas so important to defining the space, that I really wanted to explore these aspects more.

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Newark Paintings at Thoresby and Harley

I haven’t written for a while as I’ve been so busy painting, putting on an open studio and sending work to galleries. As Christmas approaches, I wanted to put down something about the pieces I’ve been working on during the latter half of the year.

I’ve been wanting to paint more views of Newark-on-Trent. Just five miles away, it is our local market town which we visit every week to shop and to use its cafes and occasionally its pubs. Newark is a beautiful townscape with a mixture of Medieval, Georgian and Victorian buildings together with a compelling ruined castle and an extraordinary market square. This year I have made a particular effort to focus my ideas on how to capture some of the essence of the town in my paintings.

Susan Isaac Newark Castle from Trent Bridge

Susan Isaac – Newark Castle from Trent Bridge

The castle dominates the western approach to Newark as you walk or drive over Trent Bridge. I made several views of this during the Summer. In the first of two shown here, I was struck by the pattern of light filtering through the railings of the bridge. The railings themselves seem to march across the river towards the stricken castle. I exhibited this in the Thoresby Open Exhibition in September – it was joint winner of the ‘Tony Wilkinson Prize’ and also the ‘Solo Exhibition Prize for 2012’ which means I will be  hold an exhibition at Thoresby sometime in 2012 (dates to be decided). The painting is now on display at the Newfield Galleries in Newark.

Susan Isaac - Newark Castle & Trent Bridge

Susan Isaac – Newark Castle & Trent Bridge

In the second painting I enjoyed creating a composition that contrasts the monumental bridge parapets with the more distant blocks of the castle. The interplay of light and dark was also a strong element in this historic juxtaposition. This painting has been selected for the first Harley Open Exhibition which will be running from 7 Jan – 5 Feb, 2012.

Posted in Awards & Prizes, Galleries & Events, Harley Gallery, Landscapes, Newark-on-Trent, Newfield Galleries, Thoresby Gallery | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Newark Pop Up No More

The Newark Pop Up Gallery has now vanished. We did our last day yesterday (Saturday) and everyone removed their stuff today – you wouldn’t know we had been there!  It was a really good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed teaming up with the other artists. Michael photographed it for posterity before it all came down:

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Newark Pop Up Private View

Had our private view of the gallery last night. It went really well. No-one thought to make a note of numbers, but my daughter took a few photos and you can see it was busy.

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Newark Pop Up Gallery

Just finished hanging work for the Pop Up Gallery in Newark ready for the opening tomorrow. There really is an exciting mix of works. Bill Ming has some terrific new abstract collages, alongside the exuberant figure paintings of Nikki McKay. My own textural explorations of the urban landscape contrast with Chris Paris contemplative paintings of Lincolnshire landscapes, and I really love Patricia Ferguson’s lyrical and haunting portraits.

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Thoresby Open Exhibition

Really pleased that Thoresby has selected three of my paintings for the Open Exhibition. This year the theme is ‘conflict’ and I chose to enter two paintings of Newark Castle together with a view of Nottingham’s market square that contrasts the Council House and the very modern Ferris Wheel that was temporarily installed a couple of years ago.

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Proposed Pop Up Gallery in Newark

Bill Ming has asked me to join a ‘Pop Up Gallery’ in Newark with himself and three other artists, to take place in the latter half of September. It  sounds like an exciting opportunity – I really like Bill’s abstract work and its a very good mix of artists with contrasting styles (Nikki McKay, Patricia Ferguson & Chris Paris).

Newark Pop Up Gallery Poster

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Staithes Gallery – Lifeboat Show 2011

This morning I sent off 6 paintings to the Staithes Gallery ready for their Lifeboat Show, running from 8 – 25 April. Colours are all tints and tones of powdery blues and rose pantiles in these Yorkshire paintings. Most of the paintings I’ve done are on a square format, although for the latest I have returned to a long landscape canvas, perfect for the horizontal emphasis in most seascapes, and one which allows a fresh take on the view onto the estuary. 

Susan Isaac - Early Morning Light, Whitby Steps

Susan Isaac - Early Morning Light, Whitby Steps (oil on canvas, 40 x 102cm)

Staithes is a place that would take a long time for me to exhaust.  Each time I approach a new painting,  even favourite views, there is always a fresh variation in emphasis to be found or a different format which allows a new set of compositional possibilities.  The more you look the more you see. This set of paintings is on the moody tonal side, in soft blues and grey browns enlivened by the red of the pantiles. The profiles of the buildings and the geographical features give enough interest without devising atmospheric effects. The two paintings of Whitby however were partly inspired by  the extremes of the daylight.  In particular the view from the swing bridge in which the light becomes shattered into splintering shards of pastel colour. 

Susan Isaac - Old Whitby from Swingbridge

Susan Isaac - Old Whitby from the Swingbridge (oil on canvas, 51 x 51cm)

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