PRESS RELEASE

THE environment and mankind’s impact on it is the theme of the 11th annual exhibition of a group of East Anglia’s leading visual artists.

Artworks, the 30-strong group, is holding the exhibition from 11 September to 3 October at Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

New member Jazz Green explores the colours and textures found in environmental erosion and decay in her rich abstract canvases. Conceptual artist and Eastern Open award winner, Lynn Hutton’s work in slate, ceramic, aluminium and wood, references the traces left by human activity throughout history on both memory and place. Debbie Ayles, who was shortlisted for the John Moore’s Contemporary Art Prize 2010, takes that typical icon of the East Anglian countryside, the timber-framed barn, and reveals its aesthetic beauty by paring it down to its structural elements.

Using satellite imagery has enabled Janet French to explore the relationship of the visual landscape we see around us, to the underlying earth in her prints combining delicate supports of handmade ‘paper’ with bold woodblock prints. Similarly, Eleonora Knowland has used photographs from the NASA website to create a series of paintings that probe the fragile sliver of a blue line that constitutes the earth’s atmosphere in painted canvas that sometimes borders on sculpture.

Sights and smells of more exotic locations have lured some artists away this year. Gabrielle Stoddart, in India for the first time, has distilled her reactions and memories of Rajasthan in her vibrant paintings and drawings. Far away places also feature in the work of Doug Patterson and Val Armstrong.

There will be insightful ‘daily artist demonstrations’ throughout the exhibition and Artworks will again be presenting ‘Artists Making an Exhibition of Themselves’, an evening when artists set-up temporary studios in front of their work. The AMET evening sponsored by The Curwen Studio (www.thecurwenstudio.co.uk) will take place on the last Saturday of the exhibition, 2 October (6-9 pm).

The Annual Janette Place Mini Artworks Prize Draw of thirty original works of art created specially by each of the thirty Artworks artists will again form a sumptuous feast for the eyes and a great talking point throughout the duration of the exhibition. This year’s charity to benefit will be the East Anglian Children’s Hospices’ Treehouse Appeal (www.each.org.uk/how-to-help/treehouse_appeal).

Artworks 11th annual exhibition
11 September – 3 October 2010, Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP30 9JG
Admission FREE; ample parking, light refreshments available, shop selling original work and cards
Open 10-5 daily

For any other queries and images, contact Gillian Crossley-Holland on 01379 890339 or Email gillian@crossley-holland.com.