Quartz will be open to the public from October 8th - 18th, inclusive, from 11.00am until 5.00pm.

Last year's exhibition sold over £35,000 of work at prices from £200 to £2000.

Artists & Sculptors

We always welcome the chance to look at work by new artists and sculptors for consideration (open to artists living in the South West). If you are interested in taking part in the Quartz exhibition in October 2008, please get in touch by clicking on the e-mail link here. Tell us a bit about yourself and if possible include a JPEG image of your work. Alternatively, ask for an application and Conditions of Entry form to be sent to you.

Charlotte Lampard, Curator

Mark Abdey

"This work marks a change in direction technically combined with a continued and life-long passion for Dartmoor and the wilder places of the South West. It goes further towards a desire to strip away the detail - to reduce the work to more of an essence of the place rather than a facsimile of the view in front of me – the space and air between the subject and me is as important as the subject itself.

Light and atmosphere is a major component and driving force of the work, attempting to create a sense of luminescence from a surface that is actually just reflecting light, is something I strive for, and hope to achieve in my work."

Mark Abdey

Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett’s emblematic and solitary trees stand each one in its own unique orchestration of weather and light. The landscape spaces are not intended to be topographical and avoid notions of the picturesque whilst retaining a dialogue with quattrocento painting and romanticism.

Michael Bennett

Edwina Broadbent

I experiment with paint, relaxing conscious control, in order to release unconscious moves, searching for an equivalent to the raw, elemental beauty of landscapes such as Exmoor, The Lake District, and in West Penwith, Cornwall, where I have lived for the past 5 years.

I explore the fluid movement and relationships of colour, piling up and breaking like a wave, transparencies and opacities of paint like the depths and surfaces of water, rough textures of earth, and the forces of the rectangle, restraining, like ancient rocks, trees and towers braced against the wind.

Edwina Broadbent

Kathy Ramsay Carr

In my childhood I spent a lot of time alone and used my imagination to make believe other places to be; in my paintings I do the same, and try to create an atmosphere of solitude and contemplation.

I am influenced by the elements and their effect in a moment on either the sea or landscape as the focus of my painting and the corresponding inner emotions associated with that experience.

Kathy Ramsay Carr

Sally Clark

Sally Clark lives and paints in the Blackdown hills. She paints predominately the landscape, capturing it's movement and abstract forms, but for a little light releaf she often wonders into the farmyards and thoughly enjoys painting it's many characters and she can never resist making a painting of a fish or crab before she eats it!

Sally Clark

Caroline Conran

Like many West country artists I absorb most of my subject matter out of doors - by the sea, in the landscape and in the garden. I respond to their stimulus in different ways, in still-lives of flowers that try to depict their true nature in a simpified form, in landscape and in figure paintings, inspired by Indian miniatures, which show a response to the natural world.

Caroline Conran

Gerry Dudgeon

Gerry studied fine art at Camberwell School of Art and Reading University under Terry Frost, and is currently represented by The John Davies Gallery, Glos. and The Sarah Wiseman Gallery, Oxford. Recently he has been revisiting his Indian series, working on large abstract canvases suffused with light and colour.

"I find working on a large scale very liberating and more of a challenge than the smaller scale canvases, particularly because the composition develops in an unplanned way as the painting evolves. I like to keep in mind the words of Anthony Minghella "Don't tie yourself to a totally mapped out route - allow the work to breathe and find its own inner life".

Gerry Dudgeon

Thea Dupays

Having had a classical art training at Goldsmiths, London, I have always enjoyed a diverse range of subjects from portraits and figures tom still life and landscape. Lately I have been fascinated by the rugged rock and cliff formations of Cornwall, their fractured shapes, rhythms and shadows. I usually paint still life int he winter and look for rich glowing colours and forms to get away from grey days.

Thea Dupays

Pennie Elfick

"My work appears to be deceptively simple, but each painting is made from multiple layers of thin paint built up over the weeks, this process is very slow and many changes are made along the way."

This work relates to the transient nature of light; the moment when the atmosphere creates unusual effects on the landscape.

Pennie Elfick

Averil Gilkes

Averil Louise St Clair Gilkes has been both a full time painter and an art teacher since she trained at Cheltenham in the early 1960s. Since 1987 she has painted full time and has exhibited in numerous shows in both Bristol and London.

"Painting for me is about developing my feelings and thoughts about a subject - drawing out the essence and building the intensity, allowing the painting to almost move on its own," she explained.

"I make sketches but also rely on my memory and my 'feel' about a subject so that the work becomes an instinctive and emotional response. I work through the layers to find the bare bones of what I want to say - exracting, simplifying, declaring my individual message to the viewer."

 

Averil Gilkes

Susie Gradwell

Susan Gradwell studied at St.Martin's School of Art (BA) and the Central School of Art (MA), before moving to the West Country in 1980, where she has continued to live and work.

"My inspiration is drawn from a love of the timeless forms and decorative qualities of urns, vases and mosaics, combined with a fascination for pattern and ornament. It is the idea of discovery of surviving traces and remains of lost, decayed, buried relics from archaeological finds that continually inspires me."

Susie Gradwell

Jenny Graham

Jenny Graham studied fine art and graphics in New York and printmaking at Somerset College of Arts & Technology, and the University of the West of England, where she received an MA in 2000.

"I have lived in Somerset for 20 years and never tire of painting the countryside of the South West," she said. "Hills, trees, skies, and fields, both real and imagined, form natural rythms. My work emphasises these, whilst still retaining a strong sense of place, light, weather and season."

"I work from sketches in a variety of media. This method allows pleanty of scope for interpretation within the general theme of 'landscape'."

Jenny Graham

Liz Gregory

Liz Gregory is a painter living and working in the Blackdown Hills. She studied at Exeter and Birmingham Colleges of Art, graduating in 1979.

"Since returning to Devon my work has become more vibrant and colourful. I consider myself a landscape painter and have just finished a year long project for which I have produced a series of paintings based on farms in the Blackdowns."

Liz Gregory

Aviva Halter-Hurn

Aviva Halter-Hurn is a wildlife and dog portrait artist. She lives in Bettiscombe, Dorset with her potter husband Tim Hurn and their two children.

Her inspiration is drawn from the local Wessex wildlife. Using mainly sepia inks she captures the souls and characters of the animals she paints.

Aviva Halter-Hurn

Miranda Johnston

Living in the West Country I am very aware of the weather, and through the medium of oil paint I try explore its impact on the land and animals. In this painting I have attempted to capture the fleeting moment as the sun appears after a torrential down pour.

Miranda Johnston

Sue Jenkins

Sue combines vibrant colour and strong imagery to create striking, expressionist paintings that are beautiful, energetic, sensual and fun.

Sue has an Honours degree in Fine Art and works full time as a painter in West Dorset. She is a member of Sherborne Contemporary Arts and exhibits her work in galleries, art fairs, festivals, open studio events and exhibitions in the South of England.

Sue Jenkins

Janette Kerr

Janette Kerr's enthusiasm for romantic landscapes mirrors the energy visible within her paintings. (RWA): "I battle to get down in my sketchbook the way a bright patch of sunlight falls across a hillside before it vanishes. Taking the observed landscape as a starting point, my paintings are a response to both the literal and the sensed. They are about light and movement – the interplay between landscape and abstraction.”

Since winning first prize in the Laing Landscape Art Open (South West Region) in 1995, Janette’s work has been extensively exhibited across the UK, with work held in private collections at Cardiff Bay Art Trust and Victoria Art Gallery Print Collection in Bath. In 2003 Janette was elected as a Royal West of England academician.

Janette Kerr

Sue Luxton

My paintings are developed from drawings, which I strive to interpret as colourful and energetic images.

I studied Illustration at the University of the West of England and now work from my studio on the Somerset levels. I exhibit in mixed shows and galleries, mainly in the South of England.

Sue Luxton

Caroline Mcmillan-Davey

Caroline's principal aims are to portray the light, colour and atmosphere of the landscape with an honest and spontaneous approach, resulting in a striking and vibrant painting. Since having her first solo show at the Century Gallery, in Henley-on-Thames, 15 years ago Caroline has exhibited with many leading London and provincial galleries. Her work has become increasing sought-after, with examples in private collections throughout the UK and overseas.

Caroline Mcmillan-Davey

Peter Messa

The landscape of hill and coast, the powerful forces of weather and tide - these are key to Peter's painting.

In the process of making the work, layers of thick and thinned paint are applied, sometimes sanded back or drawn into with oil stick, graphite or chalk. This links with the artist’s fascination with surface generally: histories partly revealed in layers of peeling wallpaper or stucco, torn posters on a billboard or the geology exposed in a weathered cliff face.

Peter Messa

Pandora Mond

Pandora Mond trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford (B.F.A.). She exhibits in London, most recently in September 2007. at Jonathan Clark Gallery, Park Walk, S.W.1.

"The subject matter of my work comes form living on Exmoor. For many years I have painted wilderness landscapes and coasts and more recently horses, which are very much part of my daily life. I try to convey the energy and movement of the animals through the expressive application of paint to lend them an ethereal quality. At the same time through this medium of paint I try to root their substance and form in our consciousness by the line of a breastbone, an eyelid or the curve of a brow. My aim is to capture the emotional integrity of my subject, be it horse or landscape."

Pandora Mond

Giles Penny

Giles Penny has developed his sculptural work from a two-dimensional background, having been trained in formal painting. It is interesting to see that most of his ideas usually translate into an abstracted version of the human form. He conveys emotions and feelings through the visual use of the figure, it becomes a vehicle for his expression and often portrays an innocent humorous quality.

Giles Penny

Jackie Spurrier

Jackie just loves painting cows and has been painting nothing else for four years. Using acrylic paint, she removes the cow from its surroundings and plays with colour and texture until the personality of the cow emerges.

Increasing in popularity all the time. She is very excited to be exhibiting for the third time at the Quartz festival.

Jackie Spurrier

Sue Spurrier

"My work is concerned with memory and the evocative experience of landscape. Landscape imposes its 'moods' upon the viewer, revealing a form of communication that can be commonly understood. It is the memory of these moods that I endeavour to capture in my work. Experiences and memories emerge from initial marks and are built upon, in an attempted harmony of representation and abstraction. The nature of the mark is my focus - creating a sense of energy that underlines the union between human existence and the natural world."

Sue Spurrier

Louis Turpin

Painter in Oils, on Canvas

Turpin's paintings deal with colour and form, bold gestural areas of colour jostle with each other held together by fine confident lines. The subjects are observed and translated into Turpin’s distinctive works. These range from landscape through gardens and ponds to sheep and snowscapes. He has also explored the human figure in its environment, a reference back to his film making days, and paints a small number of portrait commissions each year. He trained in Fine Art Painting at Falmouth School of Art, has worked full-time as a painter since 1985 and has exhibited widely. He has had many solo shows in London, Bath, Henley, Oxford, York, Rye, Greenwich Connecticut and Paris. He has also exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Academy, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and international art fairs.

Louis Turpin

Louise Waugh

Louise Waugh painter and printmaker has exhibited both here and abroad for many years and most recently in the museum in Priego De Cordoba, Andalucia in November 05. She is inspired by landscapes in Somerset and Spain and wants to convey the particular feel and atmosphere of the place. She works in oil, watercolour and acrylics as well as etching and is a member of Somerset Printmakers.

Louise Waugh

Claire Western

Claire's increasingly sought-after paintings represent deep emotional responses to the land and seascapes of the southwest. She works from rapid drawings made outside and develops her subject back in the studio by exploiting all the expressionist possibilities of unusual combinations of surface and pigment. She works on a ground of gesso, building layers of paint, paper, sand, metal leaf, glazes and pastel. often scraping back and drawing into the surfaces.

All this work is inspired by the natural world, by land and sea, the southwest coastline and the natural form and landscape of Devon. She works on the notion of art as memory, fleeting fragmentary images of a brief moment in time. She shows changes in atmosphere, weather and movement, especially that of the sea. Her work portrays different times of day, a cloud burst or sudden change in light and conditions with the consequent changes of colour and texture of the land.

Claire Western

Lucy Willis

Lucy Willis is one of Somerset’s most celebrated artists, known for her atmospheric impressions of exotic locations such as Sicily and Greece, as well as her ability to capture the light in the English countryside.

Lucy Willis