Catalogue Positive Emotions Exhibition 2019

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Exhibition Catalogue

created to be shared Kunsthuis Gallery presents 50 selected National and International Artists who will showcase affecting work responding to the theory of Positive Emotions

6th April - 27th October 2019

KUNSTHUIS

THE CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACT ART GALLERY OF THE NORTH

Location Mill Green Farm, Brandsby road, CRAYKE YO61 4TT North Yorkshire www.kunsthuisgallery.com twitter @KunsthuisArt facebook kunsthuisgallery

: created to be shared Kunsthuis Gallery presents 50 selected National and International Artists who will showcase affecting work responding to the theory of Positive Emotions in the mediums of photography, ceramics, sculpture, illustration, painting, printmaking, drawing, textiles, glass, collage, poetry and jewellery.

We want to encourage conversations, increase knowledge transfer and provide visual delights for our audiences in order to share and spread positive emotions through inspirational authentic works of art.

As curators of this show, we believe the arts have a role and a responsibility to encourage the transformational thinking required to move us away from the negative emotions we are confronted with daily, either close to home or on a global scale.

Kunsthuis Gallery will donate 5% of the sales commission from this show to York Mind, for better mental health Exhibition runs from 6th April - 27th October 2019 Gallery opening times: Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11am - 5pm

Exhibiting Artists

Kunsthuis Gallery will donate 5% of the sales commission to York Mind, for better mental health

We offer an Art Payment Plan.

Please contact Cecile Creemers for information cecile@kunsthuisgallery.com

Artwork can be delivered locally and shipped (inter)nationally!

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Adele Karmazyn Alison Thompson Amie Wiberley Angela Fox AnniRose Ansbro Barbara Sykes Becky Cornes Ben Snowden Camilla Ward Caroline Elliott Cathy Needham Charlotte Dawson Christina Cornelis Clare Pentlow CM Robertina Dave Mercer Eden Within Elena Putley Francine Cross Francesca Busca Gillian Gathercole Hazel Clark Hazel Cowen Ije Irena Kurowska Jane Marsh Jane Walker Jane Young Jeff Hunter Jen wyse Jenny Chan Jessica Brown Jill Tattersall Jonathan Hooper John Potter Justine Formentelli Leyla Murr Liliana Rothschild Marcus Hammond Maria Letsiou Marianne van Loo Mark Butler Miguel Sopena Milena Raczkowska Ruth McCabe Ryoko Minamitani Sally Lister Sampy Sicada Shelagh Atkinson Wendy Abbott

Adele Karmazyn

Adele Karmazyn

Adele Karmazyn

Frame of Mind

Path of Least Resistance

Passage to another Place

Digital Photomontage

Digital Photomontage

Digital Photomontage

50 x 60 cm

40 x 30 cm

30 x 30 cm

£ 550

£ 395

£ 340

This piece was created by playing with many different images including a scanned 19c photo, a photograph of my painting, a photograph of a frame and a photograph of lily pads on a pond.

The title came first as I knew I wanted to create a visual reaction to the Idiom ‘A Frame of Mind’ and after many different scenarios and compositions this worked for me… I love flying fish!

This is a photograph of the path I take to work, my moment of calm and beauty before the grey and uninspiring office I sit in all day. By framing this in a silhouette of a lady from a 19c photograph and hanging it on a textured wall, creating the main light at the end of the path gives a feeling of inner peace and tranquility. This is a layering of photographs, paintings and digital effects.

This is inspired by the moment you lose yourself in a good book. Letting your thoughts and imagination free to take you somewhere far away. The apple is a symbol of knowledge and temptation, and she has been tempted to indulge in both! The curtain adds a theatrical element. This image was created by using a photograph taken in a bar in Krakow, the lady is a scan from a 19c photograph, her mask/head piece is an oil painting of mine, as is the apple.

Adele’s Statement Adele’s process involves scanning 19th-century photographs, textures and her own paintings and creating images digitally, mixing the old with the new.

She intertwines her subjects with creatures and curiosities and adds in delicate foliage and detail to build new worlds and new stories. She often draws on idioms, metaphors, and song lyrics to inspire and add narrative to her work.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Ali Thompson

Ali Thompson

Ali Thompson

Emerging Wonder

A Decisive Beginning

A Rising Cluster

Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic on Canvas Board

Acrylic on Canvas Board

108 x 105 x 2.5 cm

54 x 54 cm

54 x 54 cm

£ 1,250

£ 495

£ 495

I wanted to work big with this composition. The coming together of two cells. I thought that the size would help me project how I feel about the concept of new beginnings. It is awesome how two microscopic cells can develop and grow into a human being.

So I worked on canvas layering acrylic with gel medium and varnish.

Gloss varnish initially in order to captivate the intense colours.

This composition is based on developing cells, finding their positions in the early stages of new life. I looked at using colours that projected a sense of cells in an aqueous suspension. Painted with acrylic, gels and varnish on canvas board, and then framed with a light wood.

This painting is also a composition that evolves around developing cells. Again using the colours that would support the movement and support network of new beginnings. Painted with acrylics, gels and varnish on canvas board, then framed with a light wood.

Ali’s Statement My art is inspired by my time as a midwife and neonatal nurse – my lasting passion for new life. Nature brings amazing structures into place, in order to protect and develop a new form, right up to its delivery. How can I not be fascinated?

I started painting contemporary figures of the pregnant form, and this has led to my interest in stripping life back to the essential building blocks. In my work I want to show the source of new life, both human and organic, working with acrylics and texture.

Often, a piece will start with a concept, then an idea of composition comes from considering how cells are supported and linked, although from these beginnings, the painting will often take on its own life and direction, mirroring the new and developing form. If I can convey even some of my awe for these early stages and processes of new life then I will be fulfilled.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

The work I have produced in response to this show embodies the letters and the energy of the word ‘joy’. I have worked with layers of imagery and materials to symbolise the layering and sometimes complicated and untidy construction of emotions. I have also explored the idea of using both sides of the art work, giving an added layer and substance to the works. I have used vibrant coloured silks for the embroidery, which can symbolise various intertwining aspects of emotion.

Amie Wiberley

Amie Wiberley

Joy

Quiet Joy

Machine embroidered silk thread, on printed cotton and paper

Machine embroidered silk thread, on printed cotton, silk and paper

32.5 x 27.5 cm

32.5 x 27.5 cm

£ 275

£ 275

I was exploring themes of scale and line with a set of alphabet embroidery transfers. Having thought about the symbolism in initials, I realised I could also explore short words, ‘joy’, ‘love’, ‘hope’.

This artwork is the letters J, O and Y printed to overlap using my method of working on a printer/copier onto paper backed cotton fabric. The result was then machine embroidered using coloured silk threads. The back of the work, which is also visible, is the transfer sheet printed onto the paper and the underside of the embroidery.

This artwork is the letters J, O and Y printed to overlap using my method of working on a printer/copier onto paper backed cotton fabric. The result was then machine embroidered using coloured silk threads. I added another layer with the letter J printed onto silk fabric, which was then embroidered onto the front of the work. The back of the work, which is also visible, is the result of the letters, J, O and Y printed in four directions, backwards, forwards and upside down and the right way up. Although the letters are not legible, my intention is that it contains the energy and meaning of the word joy.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Amie’s Statement My approach is based in my textiles training. I work with and combine the methods of weaving, print, digital manipulation, photography, embroidery and hand drawing and painting. I am inspired by original photography and found imagery and patterns, and technical instructions and diagrams.

My recent work explores visual possibilities of line, pattern and scale through method and process. The initial imagery comes from a sheet of embroidery transfers from a Woman’s Own magazine given to me by my grandmother when I was a child. My interest in textiles came from my grandmother and my creative practice has been intrinsically linked to that relationship and my childhood.

The themes are both personal to me and connect more widely with ideas relating to the broader area of crafts, culture and social history.

Following a period of being unwell, my practice has gradually returned as part of my process of recovery. I have had to adapt my methods to be manageable to me and limited energy levels. I have used a printer/copier as a tool to develop imagery and worked on a small scale.

The work is created through chance and process, and added to with creative intuition and decision making. I aim to produce work which not only connects to personal meaning, but is also visually interesting, appealing and decorative.

I am interested in experimenting with the meaning and symbolism of the letter forms through using alphabet transfers.

Letters, initials and monograms can be imbued with personal meanings and attachments.

Angela Fox

Annirose Ansbro

Annirose Ansbro

Less is More

Sliver of Hope

Typewriter text on prescription bag

Sole Household, acrylic and enamel paint, microcrystalline wax and plaster on canvas

27 x 13 cm

120 x 136 cm

£ 400

£ 900

Take a BAD situation.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

No end, just maintenance.

‘Sole’ was inspired by the old leather shoes that I often find walking along the shore of the Solway coast, where I live. Sometimes they are nearly whole, sometimes just a partial sole often with different details left intact i.e., copper nails, shoe late holes and leather detailing. ’Sole’ is an abstract study of the accumulating parts of these long forgotten and washed up shoes.

Yet self- improvement both mentally and physically is possible but how?

The piece discusses illness and that it is possible to have positive outcomes out of BAD. Through the process of self-introspection, mindfulness, counselling, utilising the help and advice of the support network around the self. That it is possible to have some positive outcomes.

Prescription bag with red typewriter text.

The prescription bag represents the fragility of human life.

The text is in a bold red showing positivity in both colour and meaning.

OSB board, Household paint, microcrystalline wax and screws 4x 120 x 2/3cm 1x 95 x 2cm £ 150 Formed from ’offcuts’ that I keep in my studio, ’Sliver of hope’ is a playful piece of work that uses recycled materials to create another piece of art from the remnants of another painting.

Annirose’s Statement Since graduating, the starting point for my work progressed from using handmade or found objects to using objects or places from memory. The techniques I employ when making my paintings often leaves the final work with little or no resemblance to the original subject matter. Through the use of objects and places from my memory a process of distortion has already begun.

My most recent work has had much more of a playful feel to it. Exploring the use of different materials and methods as the starting point, the subject matter being more about the process of making than that of an object. Approaching the work in a more playful manner has also influenced my palette with the colourful tins of paint I would often use for my studies now being used to create the final paintings.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Barbara Sykes

Barbara Sykes

Couplet

Four People Listening

Charcoal, Graphite and Acrylic

Charcoal, Graphite and Acrylic

51 x 51 cm

56 x 112 cm

£ 480

£ 1,500

My works are concerned with the Human Condition.

My works are concerned with the Human Condition.

This work was produced in an attempt to regain my life after the greatest sadness I have ever experienced. The work was completed in my studio at Dean Clough.

This work was produced in an attempt to regain my life after the greatest sadness I have ever experienced. The work was completed in my studio at Dean Clough.

POSITIVE EMOTIONS JOY a sense of elation, happiness, often experienced as a sudden spike due to something good SERENITY calm, peaceful feeling of acceptance of oneself INTEREST feeling curiosity or fascination that demands and captures attention AMUSEMENT a feeling of light hearted pleasure often accompanied by smiles and easy laughter

Barbara’s Statement I have a BA in fine Art and an MA in Printmaking and Art Theory. I work from my studio at Dean Clough in Halifax. I have exhibited extensively throughout the UK and abroad.

My work has won me several awards and prizes, the most recent being The Hugh Casson award for drawing in The Royal Academy Summer Show 2014.

ENTHUSIASM a sense of excitement, accompanied by motivation and engagement OPTIMISM a positive and hopeful emotion that encourages you to look forward to a bright future, one in which you think that things will mostly work out INSPIRATION feeling engaged, uplifted and motivated by something AWE an emotion that is evoked when you witness something grand, spectacular or breathtaking sparking a sense of overwhelming appreciation

Becky Cornes

Becky Cornes

Ben Snowden

Mirage no. 9

Mirage no. 10

Fly away little bird

Watercolour, acrylic and ink

Watercolour, acrylic and ink

Mixed media on paper, card and cloth

40 x 50 cm

40 x 50 cm

8.5 x 5.5 cm

£ 360

£ 360

£ 285

In 2018 I painted 17 abstract canvas works in a new series titled ‘Mirage’.

This collection of paintings developed over the winter of 2018 and continued to evolve throughout the summer months.

Blues, greys, green and gold tones have been combined with delicate, airy mark making to reflect the juxtoposition between wide open landscapes and tiny, detailed patterns within nature.

Natural patterns and shapes are explored throughout the intuitive artistic process revealing hidden moments and creating a sense of the painting’s own purpose.

by the natural colour combinations that I see everyday, from collections of grey, lined pebbles on mustard yellow sand to soft, green leaves reflected in turquoise blue streams. I am always on the lookout for colours, patterns and tiny inspirations that I can collect, expand upon and use in my paintings.

I paint using watercolour, acrylic and ink as these mediums enable me to create fluid, organic movements that reflect nature in a way that I can carefully control.

My paintings have multiple layers of depth and colour, reflecting the layers of the natural world, and I intuitively respond to natural patterns that are produced during the painting process, allowing the process itself to be a creative part of each individual piece. I paint decorative details from patterns and motifs that I have found from fossils to flowers and leaves to lichen, bringing together tiny patterns from land and sea and intuitively connecting them together.

Ben’s Statement My work explores the relationships and ideas between subject and emotion, combining visceral energy with experience through painting.

Inspired by the natural world, poetry and memory, I use the language of abstraction to create work that emphasises mood and expression to determine the overall feeling of the paintings. I predominantly work with enamel, spray paint, graphite and household paints on materials such as paper, board, card, textiles and wood that I find in everyday life. My main focus is to create work that evokes the senses and ultimately communicates a positive and constructive view of the world.

Becky’s Statement I try to capture the beauty of tiny, detailed natural patterns that live within the wide expanse of our landscape. Often inspired by the sea, my paintings have a natural flow to them, connecting patterns within waves to their coastal landscapes. I look for connections between land, sea and sky and am inspired

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Camilla Ward

Camilla Ward

Camilla Ward

Trip around the Middle

Mind Song

Return II

Acrylic and mixed media on board

Acrylic and mixed media on board

Acrylic and mixed media on board

60 x 60 cm

32 x 32 cm

60 x 60 cm

£ 650

£ 350

£ 650

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Camilla’s Statement Surface and line are fundamental to my work, and most exciting is the effect of colour on space, light and mood within a painting. Like many artists my spur is the world about me whether at home or travels further afield; my real or imagined experiences of the present and the past. Drawings, notes and photos evolve in the studio into mainly abstract images that occasionally border on landscapes.

My background in ceramics is never far away.

I build up the surface, laying down colour and texture, sometimes applying clay, editing back, maybe simply wiping marks away, then overpainting, reworking, scratching and scoring.

It’s about the actual pleasure of paint, bold or fragile. It can appear to be, and often is, intuitive and spontaneous but there is a counterpoint of order. I want the paintings to speak for themselves and I hope to intrigue the viewer through a language beyond words.

created to be shared Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

: created to be shared Caroline’s Statement I use painting to explore the patterns which emerge through movement, flux, repetition, change and chance. These processes occur in both the natural world, and the symbolic field of art.

I am interested in the idea that matter is constantly changing through erosion, rebuilding, renewal, accumulation and so on, and that every state is only temporary, and transient, and that new forms are constantly being created.

I welcome the role of chance, accidents and imperfection in my paintings.

Generally, they are not specifically planned or composed, but they evolve and happen in ways which I could not foresee.

Repetition is fundamental to the natural world. We see repetition in our daily routines, life cycles, circadian rhythms, and so on. Repeated forms are found everywhere in nature, such as cells, seeds, stones, leaves, molecules, or particles which occur billions of times over.

Repetition is also found in the inner world of thoughts, memories, and ideas.

Patterns and methods of organization are found throughout the natural world, including networks, clusters, meshes, swarms, colonies and societies into which humans, animals and plants form themselves. I am interested in finding patterns, and a sense of logic, amongst a multitude. By finding an underlying sense of organization, meaning can emerge.

Caroline Elliott

Caroline Elliott

Indian leaves

Untitled (2018:5)

Oil and wax on canvas

Oil, acrylic and wax on canvas

66 x 91 cm

92 x 127 cm

ÂŁ 1,500

ÂŁ 2,000

This painting is composed of several layers of oval shapes, which overlap, giving a feeling of motion, with calmness, and serenity. The shapes move in different directions, like leaves fluttering on a tree.

This painting is composed of several layers of spots, which partially overlap, giving a feeling of blurring, movement and vibrancy. The spots have an upwards motion which is positive, and energetic.

Oil colour mixed with wax was added as the final layer to give visual excitement, and variation.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Cathy Needham

Charlotte Dawson

Charlotte Dawson

Harmony in Green

Guardian Gates

In the Beginning

Textiles, fabric appliqué with rich hand embroidery pathways

Mixed Media on wooden board

Abstract Mixed Media on Wooden Board

42 x 42 cm

50 x 50 cm

£ 320

£ 450 This framed piece explores the green side of the spectrum, the colour of nature and new growth. It is made with a wide variety of fabrics and four hand embroidered pathways which weave across the piece from inner to outer edges, using many different hand stitches chosen for their organic flowing style. This piece exudes calmness and serenity like a Japanese garden and the pathways allow the viewer to become absorbed in a calming meditative journey through colour and texture.

Cathy’s Statement I am primarily a colourist working with the textile mediums of feltmaking, appliqué, dyeing, weaving, hand embroidery and embellishment. I particularly love creating work with a harmonious and positive feel like the work above. I tend to work intuitively, often adapting a piece as it progresses and creating different levels of interest in a piece, congruous from afar, with more details revealed on closer inspection.

The Guardian Gates protect and preserve all that is precious to us. Butterflies fly freely from beyond these gates as we open up just as Spring comes into blossom.

26 x 65 cm £ 320 In the Beginning speaks of rebirth and renewal. The ‘egg like ‘drawings suggest ‘Life’ itself and new beginnings.

Charlotte’s Statement Charlotte is a multi-disciplined artist and teacher living and working in the city of York. She completed her degree in Art & Design Interdisciplinary at Leeds College of Art (now university of arts). Her mixed media, abstract paintings are an extension of her expressive and intuitive nature. She works energetically onto wooden board using a range of materials and a palette of bold colours which she combines to create striking, one-off compositions. Her work though considered beforehand is often born of chance and consists of multiple layers, textures and marks.

She leaves her work open to the interpretation of the viewer as she believes that each person will see something different in each piece that she creates.

Charlotte also makes the wooden frames herself which then become ‘part’ of the piece and add the finishing touches to her work.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Christina Cornelis

Christina Cornelis

Clare Pentlow

Cows in a Dutch landscape at Elswout

Cows in a Field

Corallidae

Watercolour

Watercolour

Hand cut paper

27 x 37 cm

72 x 101 cm

32 x 24 x 4.5 cm

£ 550

£ 790

£ 250

Elswout is Dutch for Alder wood. It is an estate in Bloemendaal where I like to wander around the fields and gardens.

One early Sunday morning I went there with my painting gear and sketched and painted three sketches; one of the small beck running along, one of the alder trees along the road, and one of the cows grazing in the field behind. I then went home and made one painting of it.

It reflects the atmosphere of that early morning, with the light starting to fall through the dampness of night still lingering between the trees, opening up.

I painted this painting in the courtyard of a farm in the south of the Netherlands, looking out towards the Belgian border. It shows us how there can be a border that is of no seeming significance, as everything flows and light can travel anywhere. I installed my paper, paint and water and painted this in a couple of hours. Note how the light picks spaces to fall on, including the white cows.

Clare’s Statement Clare creates her artwork through the exploration of paper, constantly refining and looking for perfection whilst embracing the versatile qualities of strength and fragility. Through precision, hand cutting and folding, her pieces evolve over time through methodical repetitive motions building layer upon layer, resulting in highly textured mesmerising pieces of art, which draw the viewer in. The methodical approach Clare takes is rooted in her love of maths and science continually being inspired by patterns in nature. Complex geometric shapes are combined with intricate cutting, layering and blending colours to create a sense of depth, drawing the viewer in, light and shadow creating a sense of movement resulting in an almost hypnotic like quality.

Christina’s Statement Christina Cornelis is fascinated by the play of light in a landscape, rythm and depictions of space. For this exhibition on positive emotions she focused on the Dutch landscape with wide skies and views, in which cows move around and feel at ease, opening up space and crossing borders. Thus showing a Dutch version of serenity, flow and happiness in figurative as well as abstract paintings.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

CM Robertina

Dave Mercer

Dave Mercer

Inner Thoughts

Red Sky in the Morning

Wind Turbines

Acrylic on canvas

Digital Collage print on aluminum dibond panel

Digital collage on aluminium dibond panel under acrylic glass

80 x 80 cm

40 x 60 cm

£ 425

£ 425

This work was inspired by painters such as Rob van Hoek, and printmakers like Rebecca Vincent, who are able to create an abstract image of a landscape which still remains entirely recognizable as landscape.

This image is made from photographs taken in the city of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, where I lived and worked for some time.

Rotterdam is an amazing city, substantially destroyed in the last war, it now feels to be focused on continually rebuilding and renewing itself. It is a true river city, combining ultra-modern buildings with an extensive industrial landscape and nearby cultivated landscape. My image tries to combine these aspects and is a representation of memories of my life in that period.

30 x 30 cm £ 175 Inner Thoughts was created in response to my reflections on my life in the rural countryside. The beauty and calmness of the natural landscape is the ultimate antidote to the overload of information and sound(noise) we are confronted with in our daily lives. Switching off and emptying my mind leads to gestural movements and intuiative colour memories creating an expression of my inner feeling and inner thoughts.

CM Robertina’s Statement I’m a UK based curator, graphic designer and artist, originally trained in the Netherlands.

My abstract, process-led painting practice combines the balance of intuition and conscious decision-making. Drawing inspiration from gestural abstraction, mark-making, structures and rhythms.

The image is based on a paper collage, which has been photographed and digitally changed by blending and layering with other images. Although the final image is abstract and contains hard edged colour blocks, it is a recognizable landscape, although in fact it is completely imagined.

Dave’s Statement I am a digital painter and photographer, making images using a digital collage process. My pictures are created from layers of images and textures, sometimes simple, sometimes complex, sometimes based on a photograph of a landscape, sometimes entirely imagined. My aim is that the images are recognizable but also sufficiently abstract that they draw the viewer to have a closer look to find what is really there.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Maldivian Meditations: Desire 1

Maldivian Meditations: Desire

Eden Within Maldivian Meditations: Desire Maldivian Meditations: Desire 1 Maldivian Meditations: The Butterfly Effect Limited edition prints (C – Type) from a set of 9 prints only 10 x 10 cm £ 330 each

Maldivian Meditations: The Butterfly Effect

We travel far and wide, we soar the skies and sail the oceans searching and seeking Utopia. Where is it? How far do we go? How deep do we look? Where can we find happiness? Our efforts are futile and paradise is nowhere to be found.

We keep searching, hoping and we keep forgetting... that Utopia does not exist, paradise is this very moment and that Eden... is found within.

Eden’s Statement Eden within is a controversial artist drawing attention to the plight of women and the LGBTQA community in a 100% Muslim country, the Maldives.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Elena Putley High Above Acrylic on canvas 76 x 91 cm £ 500 I just enjoyed playing with colours and textures while painting this piece. I used quite heavy acrylic paint layers and retained some recognizable architectural references.

Elena Putley

Elena Putley

Francine Cross

Soft Geometry, St. Luke’s at Sunset

Summer Buzz

Overwhelming Everest

Oil on canvas

Acrylic on canvas

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30 cm

100 x 100 cm

75 x 50 cm

£ 150

£ 600

£ 420

St Luke’s church is the nearest church to my house in Harrogate. It was converted into apartments, which are not that great as living spaces. The church itself is a beautiful building. I see this view almost every day and I am never tired of it.

This painting is a snapshot of my memorable visit to Granada. It was early morning in August, not too hot yet. Colours of Alhambra’s tiles were a big influence.

A few years ago I had the privilege to fly over the Himalayas. I felt even luckier as it was my turn to go into the cockpit when we were over Everest. I touched it with my heart. I felt breathtaken.

The view was sublime and I felt quite moved. It was beyond words. I took some photos as I thought of the possibility of translating my feelings of admiration into art. It was more than the grandeur of Nature but also the joy of the explorers.

Elena’s Statement The creative act is an amazing therapy. It is a restatement and a reminder of what you are. Linking your emotions, experiences and ideas with your making and creative skills is the best way to stay happy and positive, particularly when life is not very kind to you.

When I start my paintings I just apply random brushstrokes and work with prepared colour schemes. I never exactly know how the image is going to be developed as it is changing all the time. It is a challenging and insecure process, but gradually after some days and weeks of layering colours, textures and other elements I get out of this mess and sometimes feel very satisfied. It is a self-indulgent process, but why not?

My work exists between the real and the imaginary, representation and abstraction.

My paintings explore beauty, chaos and predictability of urban landscape built up gradually over time. Some cityscapes are derived from my travels and firsthand observations, and some are from images found on the internet, mirroring how specific locations are drawn together by their similarities, which are surprisingly bigger than the differences. I am looking at grid-systems and structures within a chaos of urban landscape. Through the rendering of colour, texture and composition, I focus on atmosphere, memories and connections.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Francine’s Statement I was born in Lille, North of France, and now live in York. In the year 2000, I obtained a BA hons in Visual studies as a mature student. I have taken part in solo and group exhibitions and Open Studios in England and France.

Francesca Busca

Francesca Busca

Francesca Busca

Like Me!

Have a Cuppa

Crit Me

Mixed Media: fabric, metal, mirror and plastic on thin metal board.

98% reused material

Mosaic: polystyrene on metal board, direct method. 100% reused site material

Mixed Media: paper, plastic, metal and fabric on thin metal board

20 x 31 cm

£ 350

Naked in front of you, like me as I am...

20 x 31 cm

£ 300

3rd piece of the 2017 Canary Wharf New District Residency (in a building site): used tea cups, rearranged to remind the physically exhausting building work often undertaken in cold weather, under drops of rain and gusts of wind, relief from which a shaking hand then seeks in a nice cuppa.

20 x 31 cm

£ 450

Mostly made with reused discarded CWND site material and reproductions of my artworks from the Canary Wharf New District 2017 Residency (in a building site). Dedicated to all artists, visionaries, inventors, quirky ones, and the naifs whose work is born out of sheer defiance of conventions, yet depend on them for their living. In a world inundated with food pics and selfies, let’s enjoy the luxury deriving from the devoted time and attention of a crit...to substance, for a change! We dread it, but we crave for it...

Francesca’s Statement Her goal? To provoke! To Francesca, art has the same importance as philosophy: its ultimate purpose is to provoke critical thinking in the viewer. She mostly focuses on social issues. She sees art as a way to reach, address and provoke original and innovative thoughts on common issues, rather than focused on what she believes has become an almost standardised, often excessive individualism. Francesca likes to define herself as an EnvironmentARTist.

Torn between optimism and surrender, she is haunted by the idea of mankind’s imminent self-destruction. Yet, she believes in a future for humanity of resourceful innovation through re-thinking, re-purposing and reducing. Her aim is to awaken in the viewer awareness of our indissoluble interdependence with the ecosystem, and to protest against the dangerous disposable lifestyle we are currently leading. This shows particularly in her mosaics, mixed media and installations, which are created almost entirely from rubbish and “found” material. She thoroughly enjoys working within both the ethical and the material limitations which this choice entails. Whilst keeping her carbon footprint to the bare minimum, it also allows her to provide a different perspective on what society generally sees as rubbish: in Francesca’s world, rubbish acquires new uses and meanings, and becomes the undisputed protagonist of her artworks, as fun and beautiful a Cinderella as she can master it to be.

Gillian Gathercole

Gillian Gathercole

Gillian Gathercole

Spring

The Deep Blue Sea

On the Beach

Oil

Oil

Mixed media

30 x 40 cm

61 x 76 cm

36 x 44 cm

£ 295

£ 595

£ 295

I wanted to express my feeling of joy at spring’s return after deep dark winter – going for a walk in the nearby moors, feeling the fresh wind on my face and the sunshine with a hint of warmth in it, breezy days with clouds scudding, buds beginning to burst with flowers blessing us with their faces. This painting burst out of me from nowhere – the oil paint allowed me to revel in the excitement of conjuring up marks and colour representing the joy of spring.

This piece was produced in response to the feeling of joy, enthusiasm and optimism I felt on holiday in the little French Mediterranean town of Collioure (central to the birth of the Fauvists). That sense of being released from all responsibilities, feeling light of heart, being hit by the glorious heat and being so close to the wonderful, deep, blue sea. Living in Sheffield, so central and relatively far from the sea I MISS it, and seeing it once again after too long away brought deep joy. I wanted to express this in my painting using oil paint, it’s sensual capabilities allowed me to act out this feeling on canvas.

Another beach scene, this time memories of numerous beaches in the north of Wales; on Angelsey, the Llyn Peninsula and childhood recollections of looking out to Puffin Island. The beach, the coast, the sea – always happy places for me; spirits lifted by the salty breeze, time spent beachcombing, looking for shells, pebbles, driftwood…wandering lazily… a picnic on a red rug, later resting at peace. Creating this picture felt a little like beachcombing, exploring and curious about paint, pencil, charcoal, pastel and how they work together, finding different ways to make marks.

Gillian’s Statement I paint landscape and still life, my sea and landscapes are mainly semi-abstract and my main medium is oil. I also like to work in mixed media using a range of materials including charcoal, acrylic, ink and pastel. My landscapes are a response to feelings and experiences of places I know well and feel connected to – the Yorkshire east coast, the Peak district and the north coast of Wales. This work is intuitive and I work from memories and imagination. With my still life I work directly from much loved objects, however in both subjects my concern and interest is in mark making, the expressiveness of exploring and creating a visual language. Building layers, brush marks, gestural marks, drips, splashes, scratches, thin washes through to the juicy thickness of impasto, the wonder and joy of colour. I like also to keep up my practice of drawing using my sketchbook regularly, along with a love of life drawing first started on my arts foundation.

My influences are many; some of them include: Joan Eardley, Elizabeth Blackadder, Joan Miro, Henry Matisse, Winifrid Nicholson and Richard Cook.

Hazel Clark

Hazel Cowen

Ije

Spirit of Place

Revealed

Oil on canvas

Oil / Oil Pastel on Canvas

Emotional Heart of a Crushed Flower

80 x 80 cm

59 x 59 x 4.5 cm

£ 1,250

£ 400

Inspired by the harmony of a summertime landscape and the emotions evoked, I sought to capture these over a period of time in an abstract manner with colour and palette knives, reliving the feelings I had enjoyed and carefully achieving the balance necessary.

This painting has evolved by a process of layering and manipulating the paint.

The lines and marks drawn in oil pastel add an extra dimension to the work, and give an impression of something revealed, an interruption in an otherwise subtle image. By using a restricted palette of white, greys and deep reds.

I am hoping to convey a feeling of something previously hidden deep within the earth.

Hazel’s Statement Hazel Clark is a painter and sculptor who has exhibited for more than 20 years since graduating from Leeds University with a fine art degree. Her work has been featured on TV and is in private collections in this country and in the USA. From 2000 to 2002 she was a Britart featured artist and then went on to train as an art psychotherapist. She combined painting with her work as an art therapist with the NHS and more recently as a sculptor in stone. Her home and studio are in North Yorkshire. “…a visual language subtly moving between figuration and abstraction; a sense of discovery and celebration.”

Hazel’s Statement The starting point for my abstract images is the natural world, specifically the earth beneath my feet.

The varied terrain of forest, moor and coast is a constant source of fascination for me.

As in the natural world my images are a history of layers of texture, lines, marks and scratches, constantly changed and reworked. My aim is for my final work to be both abstract and autonomous.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Oil on canvas 45 x 35 x 5 cm £ 485 This painting was made using a knife. Emotional catharsis - going through a rough period, the whole world collapsing onto you, into you and instead of being crushed and destroyed, you release your feelings, exposing and freeing you, the beauty of resilience of spirit emerging, bringing hope and towards joy.

Ije’s Statement (pronounced Eee J) A conceptual/ expressionist mixed practice artist; painting, poetry, installation, sculpture, printing, photography, film and curation. MA Fine Art Birmingham City University. Undertaking durational activity in the landscape, I wonder about what went before me and what may lie ahead; I wonder about the relationships between land, sky, water and inhabitants; about singularities and multiples, about folding time, about pain, hope and love. My work seeks to reshape embodied notions, responding to encounters with time, space and place through making and documenting; generating works activated through gesture, texture, layering, repetition, colour and reflectivity.

Ije

Irena Kurowska

Irena Kurowska

PERDURANCE 14: I RANandRAN AND WITH EVERY BREATH A PART OF ME WAS FREED

Dawning

The Gentle Rain

Oil on linen

Oil on canvas

60 x 50 cm

50 x 40 cm

£ 495

£ 440

Working from memories of many happy days spent on the Yorkshire moors and dales, I wanted to depict that special time as the sun rises and gradually lightens the land at dawn. The sensation of the wind against the skin and the silence over the land and the joy of the changing colours in sky and earth.

We are fortunate to see the beauty of the many changing seasons in this country.

Sometimes all in one day.

This painting celebrates the soft light of the sun breaking through on a rainy day by the sea. I set out to capture the atmosphere of that experience, the amazing formations of light and dark as the sun and wind and clouds dance together.

Acrylic on linen 105 x 105 x 5 cm £ 1,600 This painting was made using knife/ spreading tools, continuously moving wet paint and making gestural punctuations.

Shaping the painting as I shape the habits of my body when running, the repetition and placement of footfall, of my breathing; coming apart, then synchronizing, freeing up the senses, the body, the mind, the soul.

IJE running log 6.2.15; 11:09; 3C sunny; 162 minutes; Space, time, boundlessness; Wind ripping the breath as the day reveals itself. Sun hazy lemon; cool, barely warming yet inviting to engage, to celebrate - I am alive for one more day.

Irena’s Statement My working process is intuitive and spontaneous and process led. I start with images drawn from memory aided by sketches and photographs.The ideas change as I experiment and allow myself to be led by the physical properties of the painting materials.

I try to depict the atmosphere of places.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Jane Marsh

Jane Walker

Jane Walker

Sit Breath Ahh

Sound and Colour 1

Sound and Colour 2

Watercolour and acrylic on japanese paper on panel

Watercolour and acrylic on japanese paper on panel

This work was produced by batik and hand dyeing the fabric and using embroidery to enhance the design.

56 x 56 cm

40 x 30 cm

£ 250

£ 160

Meditation is a way to calm the mind and bring about feelings of well-being.

The working of the embroidery in this piece was a sort of meditation because of the calm quiet way it was created together with the uplifting colours and subject matter.

Pleasurable sensations and so called happy hormones are said to be produced when we are surrounded by the natural world. I made a cushion to illustrate how a simple object can remind us that we can reach a positive state of mind with little effort or expense.

Just find a quiet space sit on a soft cushion and breath.

Jane’s Statement Decorating fabric is a great joy for me. The reason that I create any work is to take something ordinary and transform it into a thing of beauty.

I work a lot with dyes and thread and love to use vibrant colours. I find the act of creating colour with dye whether natural or chemical a very exciting and positive experience.

Jane Walker Sound and Colour 3 Watercolour and acrylic on japanese paper on panel 40 x 30 cm

£ 250

40 x 30 cm

£ 250

Jane’s Statement I make 2-dimensional work with lines. The images I make are of cities, I draw and re-draw cities. Recently I have been slowing down the speed I make the lines. The images I end up with are stiller. I am interested in seeing the patterns humans make on the planet from different distances. I change the scale of buildings.

I am interested in how far these patterns reach in time and space. Do human structures have any effect on nature, on animals, the weather and climate?

Does the human pattern of building have any impact on the past or the future?

Composition for me is a mathematical presence in the arrangement of the lines.

The speed and tension in the lines picks up on music, sounds and vibrations. I also jot down words and graffiti from the urban experience. In my work the cities are often upside down, the smallest buildings at the bottom under pressure. The lines are made with stitching, ink, scratching through oil paint. I do this is to create as much contrast as possible and to extend the essentially traditional practice of painting. The cities have started forming centralised shapes, crosses and columns, or icons. They are not attached to the rectangular edge any more.

Jane Young

Jane Young

Jane Young

After the Rain 1

After the Rain 2

After the Rain 3

Sculpture: Concrete, Resin, Colour

Sculpture: Concrete, Resin, Colour

Sculpture: Concrete, Resin, Colour

32 x 19 x 7 cm

33 x 17 x 7 cm

19 x 14 x 5 cm

£ 235

£ 235

£ 175

Engaging on an emotional level with the outside, my walks down by the river where I live in Teesdale are a never ending source of inspiration, creating a sense of calm and peace within me. I feel being outside is good for the soul and through my artwork I try to bring the outside in.

Jane’s Statement My art practice has evolved around colour and how it can affect ones emotions.

I trace this journey back to my earliest memories of when aged three, I would play for hours with the myriads of colours in the buttons, ribbons and yarns belonging to my Grandmother a skilled dressmaker.

The process of experimenting with a variety of materials and mediums is fundamental to my practice. Concrete has a willingness to transform in both form and texture and is a perfect medium to incorporate resin and colour. Using sand as a mould I poured and manipulated the mixed concrete. Resin and coloured inks flow into the crevices and create beautiful pools of colour.

I feel optimistic that the colours I use create positive and hopeful emotions that encourage the viewer to look forward to a brighter future, one in which you think that things will mostly work out.

The process of combining colour with traditional and non-traditional materials, and colour as a vehicle in itself is fundamental to my practice. I work intuitively to create an outcome, using the opportunity to investigate further via the unforeseen.

“After the Rain” is a series of work inspired by the beautiful things that can emerge after rain.

I relate this to life itself. Living in Teesdale, walks down by the river near my home are a never ending source of inspiration.

The juxtaposition of the unforgiving concrete into which the resin with water-like properties and colours flow suggest fluidity. Life-affirming colour pools within the dark, ruggedness of the concrete, express the sense of calm and peace inspired in me by the water.

When the rain falls the river becomes full, it runs fast and furiously ....“After the Rain” once the water subsides I see pools of water left in the crevices of the stones and on the riverside paths.

Inspired initially by the Bauhaus and the link between art and design, art, allows me to release emotion and capture visions. Using innovative methodology I reference the past to make contemporary art and the elements that intertwine characterise my practice.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Jeff Hunter

Jen wyse

Jen wyse

Pink Profile

New Horizon

Emerging Day

Ink and Marker on Board

Oil on canvas

Oil on canvas

33 x 28 cm

23 x 23 cm

90 x 60 cm

£ 150

£250

£550

My artistic work centres around themes of happiness, joy, beauty, welcome, the power of imaginative exuberance in crafting a meaningful expansive life..

This is a small example, worked with inks on board, incorporating the themes of simplicity and awareness.

New Horizon is an interpretation of the landscape offering the possibility of a future with a variety of different outcomes. We can rest awhile at the golden horizon or continue on our way to the suggestion of further adventures and journeys to be taken, which at this time are not clearly formed.

This particular piece was inspired by my day to day journey to and from work. I am fortunate enough to live in a beautiful area surrounded by stunning countryside and scenery. It is always uplifting in the drudgery of day-to-day life to experience the nuance of colours as a new day begins. This particular morning a vivid streak of yellow skipped across the horizon giving rise to a feeling of joy and exhilaration.

Jen’s Statement Painting predominantly in oils and concentrating on my love of nature and the relationship between man and his environment, I explore my journey in paint as an expression of my relationship to life both outside and within me.

Although figurative in essence my need to explore different ways of annotating or interpreting the landscape is moving towards a more semi-abstract style to convey the emotion of both colour and mood whilst embracing and tapping into the notion of a universal language.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

As I was driving at the time I couldn’t stop and had to try and file it away, in my memory for a later date. Once back in the studio I tried to visualize this memory and recreate my response and excitement of the sun skipping across the horizon bringing light to the emerging day.

Jenny Chan

Jessica Brown

Jessica Brown

DIVAS Wall Masks

Joy Rising

Looking Up

Stoneware

Mixed Media on wooden board

Mixed Media on wooden board

15 X 15 X 7 cm

33 x 33 cm

33 x 33 cm

£ 160 each

£ 350

£ 350

Jenny’s Statement The DIVAS are a series of figurative female sculptures and wall masks by Jenny Chan, reflecting upon our shared appearance yet individual essence.

The series was spawned by her interest in the instantaneous human emotion and its unconscious connection with sight.

She explores this idea with her DIVAS by starting with a blank face, onto which she designs their individuality. She achieves this through design of their clothing and decoration, inspired by different cultures, periods and fantasies. Each unique piece evokes different emotions, with Jenny highlighting how these emotions lead to our unconscious judgements of people by their appearance. Every piece is hand built using coiling and slab building techniques, coloured using a variety of oxides, underglaze and ceramic paints.

On a cold, rainy day in October, I was given a present of a bulb in a little vase of water. An accompanying label told me to put the bulb in a dark cupboard and take it out ten weeks later. I pretty much forgot about it, but then at Christmas, while looking for candles, I came across it again, and put it on the window sill.

Seeing its tentative shoots turn into a burst of green and pink is such a lovely gift. As it flowered into a beautiful hayacinth, the days have started to get a little longer, and although it doesn’t feel like it, the year is already turning towards spring again. I hope the vivid colours, and something of that joy and hope for the future comes through in this painting.

This piece is part of my ‘Red line of fate’ series, based on the Japanese story about the red ties that bind people together forever. This painting is inspired by this idea, and also links to the Buddhist thinking that we are all connected, not only with each other, but with every living thing around us. We are all one. In this painting, I hope to convey a sense of joy about the connection between ourselves and nature, including the birds soaring in the sky above us.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Jessica’s Statement My work comes from looking at the patterns, shapes, forms, and colours of my surroundings. My paintings may remind the viewer of these sources of inspiration, but I try not to make “pictures of” any of it. I use an abstract language of mark making that is both personal and universal. A visual language that I hope has the power, like music or literature, to uplift, and communicate.

Jill Tattersall

Jill Tattersall

Jill Tattersall

New Life 1

New Life 2

Night of Freedom

Mixed media collage with Japanese papers

Mixed media collage with Japanese papers

Mixed media with silver leaf on canvas

96 x 53 cm

96 x 53 cm

94 x 94 cm

£ 750

£ 750

£ 950

One of a pair of paintings exploring growth and (re-)birth. It’s based on primitive positive and negative patternings in nature, with interconnecting and related shapes. Found on the seabed, on stones and in plants and animals – for example seaweed and nautilus shells. Forms and markings expand and split as the organism grows. There’s no life without rupture; from cell division in the fertilised ovum to the fully-formed foetus.

A celebration of the realities of life.

New Life 1 also plays with circle, lines and bands.

One of a pair of paintings exploring growth and (re-birth). It’s based on primitive positive and negative patternings in nature, often on the sea-bed, on stones and in plants and animals - most familiarly in seaweed and nautilus shells. Forms and markings expand and split as the organism grows. There’s no life without rupture: from cell division in the fertilised ovum to the fully-formed foetus.

A celebration of the realities of life.

New Life 2 also incorporates rectangle and circle elements.

Part of my Night Sky series.

Intense blues with multiple washes of paint plus cobalt and other pigments.

Silver leaf symbolises moonlight and the mystery of night time.

Both pieces were made in memoriam using a gift of vintage Japanese paper from a valued collector, a dealer in Oriental artefacts. From death comes life. A visitor to a recent exhibition told me these papers have Buddhist connotations and contain Chinese as well as Japanese. I also used handmade paper and found items.

From earliest times people have gazed up into the night sky. What does it all mean?

Where do we belong in that immensity?

I often wonder what went through the head of someone born 30,000 years ago as he or she looked at the stars.

Both pieces were made in memoriam using a gift of vintage Japanese paper from a valued collector, a dealer in Oriental artefacts. From death comes life. A visitor to a recent exhibition told me these papers have Buddhist connotations and contain Chinese as well as Japanese. I also used handmade paper and found items.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

This is what you would have seen if you looked up into the sky when Magna Carta was sealed; ultimate expression of optimism and idealism as well as pragmatic hopes for the future. And a proof that firm intentions can bring lasting results over time.

Jonathan Hooper

Jonathan Hooper

Jonathan Hooper

Church Wood, Headingley

Derwentwater Grove, Headingley

Hyde Park Road, Leeds

Oil on hardboard

Oil on hardboard

Oil on hardboard

15 x 23 cm

30 x 41 cm

51 x 76 cm

£ 130

£ 205

£ 320

This painting is part of a series based on a small patch of woodland in Headingley in Leeds. The paintings were not made directly from the subject, but from a set of rapid small chalk drawings on tinted paper. In the paintings I wanted to keep the simplicity and directness of the drawings, and to render though colour the sensation of light filling the spaces between trees.

This was made at the end of a series of paintings of semi-detached houses in Headingley. This painting was prompted by the sensation of sunlight on walls and windows. I simplified the colour and the form, showing only the essential structure of the windows to create a semi-abstract pattern.

I made this painting towards the end of a series showing terraced houses in the Hyde Park area of the city. Earlier paintings in the series were more literal in colour and tone, but in this one I wanted to dissolve and simplify the forms, and to think about the fall of light on brick and glass, and about the space in front of the houses.

Jonathan’s Statement My subject is the built landscape of Leeds: the houses, flats, and commercial and industrial architecture of the city, and the suburbs to the North West (Hyde Park, Kirkstall, Headingley and Meanwood).

I focus on the permanent and characteristic forms and atmosphere of the buildings and spaces and so I do not include people or vehicles, and I avoid indications of specific times of day. In parallel with realism, I place importance on the abstract qualities of line, shape, pattern, texture, and above all colour, and on the emotional atmosphere of the painting.

I paint in oil on canvas or board, in my studio at home. I work from drawings, notes and photographs of the subject. Typically, I work on a series of paintings over a few weeks, developing the colour and compositional relationships, and I revisit the subject many times to think through problems in the paintings.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Positive Emotions Exhibition Brief We, as humans, have always faced uncertainty engaging with life and a resultant complex set of mechanisms have developed to help us navigate through this.

Our emotional engagement with life is a powerful source of motivation, conscious or unconscious.

Leaving aside the academic debates that underpin these concepts this exhibition focusses on the idea of positive emotions.

We invited artists to produce work inspired by the ideas of Barbara Fredrickson’s ground-breaking Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions. She says the ‘point’ of positive emotions is to open our minds, broaden and expand awareness, and facilitate the building and development of resources including knowledge, skills, abilities and relationships.

For example, ‘joy sparks the urge to play, interest sparks the urge to explore, contentment the urge to savour and integrate, and love sparks a recurring cycle of each of these urges within a safe, close relationships.’

We feel that hand in hand with this idea is that of resilience, the building and layering of positive responses that can also refer to the materials chosen to be used in the production of works of art.

And colour looms large here as a powerful source of the expression of feelings.

John Potter Rum from Eigg Fine Art L\E Print - Photography A3 print 20 x 16” oak frame £ 195 My work has taken me to Norway, Canada, Iceland, Austria, and of course the British Isles but my first choice most certainly would be Scotland, and especially the Highland region including the Inner and Outer Hebrides.

This unique island and its people captured my imagination immediately and I hope to continue to visit for many more years to come. I am based in York and work with modern digital cameras, a Canon DSLR and a Sony mirrorless system, and generally use a tripod. I make my signed prints using a large format Epson printer and Fotospeed Platinum Baryta fine art paper. I continue to run a small number of workshops and courses in the UK each year.

John’s Statement I have been working professionally as a landscape and fine art photographer for over thirteen years. I am incredibly lucky to be able to spend much of my time working in the countryside seeking out images that both inspire me, and I hope, convey the mood and especially the emotions I was feeling when I captured a moment in time, when light, weather, and subject come together.

Much of my time is spent making literal landscapes for applications such as magazines, calendars, cards, books and Internet use etc. but I get by far the biggest thrill when I encounter a scene like this. In a typical year there may only be a small handful of evocative images that absolutely convey my passion for nature and this is certainly one of them.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Justine Formentelli

Justine Formentelli

Justine Formentelli

When it’s raining frogs

Slipping Glee

Suspension

Gouache and oil on wood panel

Acrylic and oil pastel on paper

Gouache and oil on wood panel

50 x 30 x 3.5 cm

86 x 65.5 x 3.5 cm

50 x 30 x 3.5 cm

£ 550

£ 850

£ 550

Justine’s Statement Most of my paintings spring from an uplifting or dramatic moment before it becomes a formal conversation between marks, shapes and textures. I am captivated by how our inner lives and transitory emotions colour the outlook we have on life. From one day to the next, the same situation can appear drastically different depending on our perception, the lens through which we navigate through our existence. The three selected pieces are about positive emotions when there is hope and a palpable sense of possibility. The brush marks and shapes are lined up in space for things to happen, for a new situation to occur. I wanted to emphasise the positivity of these moments with the choice of colour and their lyrical rhythm.

In this work on paper, I wanted to see if I could push the contrast between the two complementary colours in a shrill way to announce a dissonance to come, a crack among harmony. It is still a joyous moment but it’s at the tipping point where it could verge into a more intense cocktail of emotion. Different textures of acrylic applied with brushes and a comb and oil pastel were used to contribute to the volatility of the mood.

For this piece ‘Suspension’ and ‘When it’s raining frogs’, my intention was to make a series about an unfolding sense of possibility and the excitement of anticipation. It was spring and after a long and dark winter, the arrival of the sun made everything shine with promises.

I am very aware that these precious moments don’t last which is why I wanted to suggest an arrangement of shapes and marks in flux, an ever changing weather of emotions.

I used gouache and oil on wooden panel.

I mixed the gouache with gum Arabic which reinforced the fluidity of the background. The subsequent layer was in oil. The slipperiness of the material allowed for swift gestures.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Leyla Murr

Leyla Murr

Leyla Murr

Our Future is in our past

Height of Summer

Acrylic on canvas

Acrylic on canvas

80 x 60 cm

70 x 92 cm

£ 800

£ 700

I love turquoise blue as it reminds me of a beautiful Adriatic Sea where I spent numerous summers in my youth and still do every year. Magical islands , clean turquoise water , diving into the deep blue ..

This work emerged out of an attempt to calm down my palette and mix colours of the same family which resulted in a warm feel of this landscape painting.

Twilight Acrylic on canvas 76 x 100 cm £ 1,200 This painting was unplanned and developed organically. I live on the edge of Pennines and walk daily getting inspiration from ever changing light and it’s effect on the surroundings.

Leyla’s Statement I create abstract art which explores a meeting point between reality and abstraction with a finely tuned sensitivity to colour and a deep fascination with the mechanism of light. My paintings are constructed by coordinating different elements: the application of paint on canvas, the use of colour and spontaneous mark making. The process is rarely planned and my paintings undergo many changes until I bring them to the point where they feel resolved.

I want the viewer to see through my eyes and appreciate how beautiful the world is when you really notice how the light falls, how colours interact, and the energy which can be found in a landscape when you train your eyes to see it.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Liliana Rothschild Movements Textile artwork made in organic fibre printed with woodcut technique, and personal weft yarn applied 143 x 27 cm

Liliana Rothschild

Liliana Rothschild

Track

Changes

Textile artwork made in organic fibre printed with woodcut technique, and personal weft yarn applied

Textile artwork made in organic fibre printed with woodcut technique, and personal weft yarn applied

27 x 31 cm

£ 300

32 x 48 cm

£ 300

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

£ 1,000

Liliana’s Statement My work belongs to a sequence of works of art that I am working on, that speak on the subject of migration. People feel motivated to migrate when they decide to have a change in their ways of life. I believe this is a positive way to face the future with hope and expectation. Making new plans and strategies.

The symbols represent their culture.

The organic fibre I use is the medium to represent “Mother earth” and its relationship with man. The thread, linking past and present, is one that upkeeps places and relations. I use the woodcut technique to show the cultural mark that these groups transfer or print wherever they go enriching other lands.

Marcus Hammond Kex Gill Mixed Media on Board 120 x 60 cm £ 1,500

Marcus’s Statement My hope and expectations for a finalised piece of work is to offer a fresh outlook on what is a much lauded subject matter. My interest does not lie in replicating or offering a literal translation of what is set before me but rather offer a distinctively alternate perspective of what I see and want to convey to the viewer.

It is my intention to replace a ‘view’ with a feeling or emotion and a narrative which connects me and hopefully others to a place. Likewise, a tree, flower, skyline or blade of grass is substituted with an abstracted gesture, openly accessible to translation and personal objectivity.

The theme remains a constant in this ever changing world. It is there for all, for comfort as well as inspiration, for enjoyment and as an old friend to depend on.

We are all intrinsically linked and dependable on the land we inhabit and now, at this time, that is more relevant today than at any other moment in our brief time on this earth.

After initial sketches made ‘in the field’ I transfer dominant features from these onto prepared boards with large, heavy brush strokes. This is my starting point from where I quickly apply fluid gestures to ‘flesh-out’ the work. Continued applications of paint are built up in layers and during this process decisions are made whether to retain or paint over certain aspects created until a resolution is achieved.

Marcus Hammond Horn Bank Mixed Media on Board 120 x 60 cm £ 1,500 My preference is to work onto prepared board as it gives me the ability to enhance the piece by either scratching into the paint with the end of a brush or screwdriver along with incorporating pencil and other media options. I use many differing paint types but prefer a quicker drying medium as it allows me to ‘work’ the paint more effectively to achieve the results that I’m looking for within a particular piece.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Maria Letsiou

Maria Letsiou

Maria Letsiou

Biophilia I

Biophilia 2

Biophilia 3

Acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper

Acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper

Acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper

100 x 67 cm

76 x 56 cm

76 x 56 cm

£ 3,000

£ 2,500

£ 2,500

Maria’s Statement My artistic research focuses on the transformation of the diverse images that belong to visual culture (e.g., comics, botanical images, vintage family photographs, captures of urban sights etc).

I choose such images according to the peculiar connections they have with personal memories and mundane activities. I collect, depict, and transform these images so I can uncover new meaning. My material is water-based paint (ink, watercolors, acrylic) that I apply on the surface of paper.

The Biophilia series concerns itself mainly with the relationship between humans/nature. The artworks are representations of a hybrid nature that is created with visual elements from the microcosm and imaginary landscapes. My purpose is to create a sensed connection between the visible and invisible. The question is what is the common substance that unites the universe?

Maria Letsiou (born in Greece in 1972) is a visual artist, educator, and researcher. Since 1992, Letsiou has taught art in several educational settings.

This first stage of her teaching career provided her with a wealth of observations that nurtured questions that she later had the opportunity to research further. In 2010, she earned a Ph.D. degree in Art Education at the Athens School of Fine Arts (Department of Theory and History of Art), and she contributed to research about multiculturalism and artistic instructional practice in Greece. As a Fulbright visiting scholar (2015), hosted

by Prof. Paul Duncum (UIUC’s School of Art and Design, USA), she researched video production and visual culture education. Since 2011, Letsiou has participated in several international research projects organized by InSEA. She is a member of the organizational committee of InSEA seminars in Thessaloniki, School of Early Childhood Education, Aristotle University, Greece (2018). As a visual artist she has participated in two biennials (Luleå Art Biennial, LAB11, Sweden, 2011, and 9th Biennale of Young Artists in Europe, Rome, Italy, 1999).

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Maianne van Loo

Maianne van Loo

Maianne van Loo

Behind the Glass I

Behind the Glass II

Behind the Glass III

Photograph printed on silk sensation material

Photograph printed on silk sensation material

Photograph printed on silk sensation material

40 x 40 cm

40 x 40 cm

40 x 40 cm

£ 150

£ 150

£ 150

Photographs printed on fabric (silk sensation). These photographs taken in Japan last year evoke a sense of serenity in my mind they have a calming influence.

They also, however, might spark curiosity and will make the viewer question what lies behind the glass.

Marianne’s Statement Marianne van Loo is a documentary photographer with an MA in photography from UCLAN. Originally from the Netherlands she nows lives in the UK. She is interested in place and non-place and how images relate to identity and history.

She is also an advocate of self-publishing and self-published a few newsletters and a limited edition photo book called ‘Lines of Gurgaon’. She has exhibited her images in London, Delhi, Rome, France, Blackpool and Amsterdam.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Mark Butler

Mark Butler

Nerves on Steel

Microscopy art form #1

Unique, steel and bronze wall mounted sculpture

Unique, bronze and steel freestanding sculpture

79 x 35 x 5 cm

65 x 55 x 10 cm

£ 1,200

£ 1,400

The inspiration for this piece came from looking at images of the human body under the microscope which reveals a vast array of interesting forms.

This piece is inspired by an image of nerve cell growth, the holes in my pieces being the cell nucleus and the tendrils the neurites through which the cells communicate with each other. My love of the contrast between rusted steel and shiny polished bronze determined the choice of materials.

The inspiration for this piece came from a number of sources. The first of these was from looking at the drawings of Ernst Haeckel in his book ‘Art Forms from the Ocean’. In this, his drawings of microscopically small radiolarians are beautifully executed and show the delight he found in their many fascinating forms and his wish to share that joy with others.

The second is a development from my series of pollen sculptures, looking in detail at their textured surface and form from scanning electron microscope images.

Finally, my love of the contrast between rusted steel and shiny polished bronze determined the choice of materials.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Mark’s Statement My work uses an unusual combination of polished bronze forms with the contrasting colour and texture of rusted sheets of steel, linking a material seen as precious with one which is usually associated with decay.

My influences often have a scientific background, in the amazing forms that can be found in the microscopic world and their unseen influence on our world.

This provides an unlimited supply of interesting forms which I use as the basis of my sculptures. I do not attempt to replicate these, only use them as a starting point to develop my work. As a result, the viewer often interprets my sculptures in different ways.

The forms originate as a wax object, which can be worked on in many different states, from pouring as a liquid, modelling like clay, or carving when solid. This allows a myriad of different mark making techniques to be used and the casting process can capture the tiniest detail.

After perfecting the art of bronze casting, I now try to introduce deliberate flaws into some of my moulds, embracing the unexpected and intriguing results these can produce when the molten bronze breaks through. I complete all parts of the process myself, and I take pride in the craftsmanship of a well finished sculpture, as well as its artistic creation.

Miguel Sopena

Miguel Sopena

Milena Raczkowska

Nebula

Red Flame

On the Long Legs

Oil on paper

Oil on paper

Acrylic/oil painting on canvas

46x34 cm

46x34 cm

82 x 109 cm

£ 350

£ 350

This piece was created as an improvisation using thick oil impasto and impasto medium, which creates a rich, flowing, glossy mixture. My focus was on careful colour mixing and very free, improvised application on the surface with a palette knife.

This piece was created as an improvisation using thick oil impasto and impasto medium, which creates a rich, flowing, glossy mixture. My focus was on careful colour mixing and very free, improvised application on the surface with a palette knife.

Miguel’s Statement I like the optimism conveyed by these pieces which were created in the spur of the moment, just playing with the joy of colour mixing and the rush of applying flowing paint to the surface with no holding back and no figurative reference. When I look at these pieces today I experience the same feeling of freedom and flow that I remember having when I painted them.

The starting point for my abstract pieces can be a quick improvisation using colour or collage, a play with composition on a piece of paper, a photograph of a cityscape or landscape which is abstracted on the canvas, or, at the other extreme, an investigation into memory and emotion which is processed into a pictorial piece. I create work because I see creativity as a necessity.

Even when the starting point for a given work is technical or very playful the creative process is loaded with feeling. The expression of emotion is at the heart of my practice.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

£ 850

Milena’s Statement My paintings present a unique combination of abstract, figurative imagery and drawing expressed with emotion and poetic sensitivity. I create in a vigorous and often spontaneous manner led frequently by emotions. My images convey a consciousness that implores us to seek out the details and subtleties of nature and explore our relationship with it. It is often the unintended and subliminal mind that creates the initial medley of shapes and spaces and the artist is the one who makes the choice of exaggerating or diminishing various areas and characters. I let myself be carried away without resistance in the direction indicated by the hand of an intuitive line, colour and form. My stimulating expression of environment brings each viewer into an effervescent, playful and exciting world full of organic forms and shapes. Each piece might be a peculiar exploration of natural forms of botanical, animal and human shape. Somewhat the combination of illustrative and abstract styles gives my work a dreamy quality that transports the imagination into a whole other world that is waiting to be discovered.

The landscape big enough for my joys and sorrows Oil on board, 20 x 55 cm

By the time I was around 8 years old, my family had acquired an old car: a dull green Jowett 2-stroke, and in this lumbering beast we made excursions to my father’s favourite place, the Pennine moorlands. That wide open landscape remains one of my loved places, where I can take time to look, hear and feel. Its sense of remoteness resonates with fields of my inner world, allowing the creative force of melancholy to take shape.

No longer skimming screens and rushing from a to b, a deep calm can emerge in which my loves, sadnesses, gratitudes, anxieties and losses can rest. Its a receptive space - a container for our human stumblings: Immense and unshakeable.

Ruth McCabe Blue Heaven

Hot Orange

Watercolour

Watercolour

34 x 47 cm

£ 290

33 x 34 cm

Two weeks of sunshine in May, on the Isle of Mull, astounded me, as entire mountainsides turned blue! I thought bluebells were the shy beauties of tranquil spring woodlands, but no - here they were taking over! Out in the open, way above sea level, carpeting the ground all round me. And peeking out slowly amid these blue seas, fresh lime green splashes of young bracken shoots. Another gorgeous gift of Nature. Unexpected and so lovely.

I could not take my eyes off this gradual take-over of intense blue. In the painting, I have aimed for that very particular mix of ultramarine and violet, adding the zest and zing of the bracken green. Powerful, unstoppable, delightful.

£ 745

£ 210

A sunny day on the Atlantic beach of Iona, Inner Hebrides. The receding tide uncovered piles of red seaweed, glistening brightly orange, but drying and crisping to a dark, treacly brown. Teeming with hundreds of waders rushing in and out to avoid the waves, this mesmerising habitat entranced me with a sense of heat and power: its abundance, its gift of food, and its beauty. I had never before seen such an intensity of colour, and spent the day pottering around the rock pools and marvelling at ORANGE. The painting enjoys the depth of hue and change from bright rich orange to darker tones of the dried fronds and dark pools. It is simply a rejoicing in that day’s gift of colour.

Ruth’s Statement ‘Necessary aimlessness’ (1) describes my approach to beginning a painting. On site I sketch, noticing what it is about the place that particularly attracts me; feeling at home in the clutter and mess of boat yards for instance. I may know something important (to me) about it; eg. the threatened status of our coastal saltmarsh habitats, or the likelihood that the mess and falling apart status of the old harbour huts reflects something of me.

Back in the studio the first decisions will be paper or wood, oil or watercolour, brush or palette knife. Some element of the subject that has impressed itself upon me will influence these choices. The on-going process is then one of making a mark, then standing back and seeing how it works within the space; slowly discovering the composition bit by bit, until I think yes! thats the place, the feeling, the light, the energy.

(1) From “Land” Gormley, Winterson and Richardson

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Ryoko Minamitani

Sally Lister

Cosmic Flow

Constellations

Mixed media on canvas

Mixed Media

40 x 40 cm

90 x 90 cm

Sampy Sicada

£ 450

£ 650

When I saw the ‘Positive Emotions’ concept, I felt instantly it is rainbow colours not black or dark colour.

This is new experimental work, colorful mixture of paint with harmony.

Each colour might describe the feelings of joy, serenity, interest, optimism and other positives.

Working flat on the floor, the different paints are manipulated to create texture and colour. When I begin the painting I have an idea of what I want to achieve but this may change as the colours and textures mix and progress.

That one childhood playground that got torn down/you never saw again

I believe that when we follow the cosmic flow naturally we will reach a positive state eventually, even if we have negative experience before that.

Negative experience is for enjoying positive emotions deeply. If we knew only positive emotions we would not appreciate this. To follow the cosmic flow is to open our minds widely and deeply.

Sally’s Statement As the great painter Gerhard Richter quoted “Art is the highest form of hope”. This statement reflects and personifies the feelings of joy and optimism created when immersed in the process of creating a piece of artwork.

The creative process produces a sense of utter concentration in the endeavour to be creative and ultimately gives the artist a pure sense of serenity and the greatest sense of freedom. Hopefully these feelings of positive emotions are transmitted to the beholder as a sense of awe and joy.

In my paintings the manipulation of paint, colour and texture leads to a sense of pure creation and serenity.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Charcoal 6.4 x 8 inch £ 1,240

A place familiar to us all, a reminder to cherish the here and now like you will never get them again.

Shelagh Atkinson

Shelagh Atkinson

Absent

A remembered space

Screenprint

Screenprint

30 x 30 cm

25 x 50 cm

£ 300

£ 425

A small but big screenprint of remembering the absence of someone, produced after a time of loss but openness at the new beginnings. Of the subtle ways we remember and see the absence but the presence of the other.

A screenprint of layers and colour working with my data base of imagery and motif to produce this piece alone. Working with the ideas of remembering spaces, about where we come from, about land marking us and making us. And within this context we inform ourselves about our sense of place.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Shelagh’s Statement Her whole practice has expanded from painting and printmaking, photography to sound and text and pamphlets seemlessly crossing the infinite platforms/artforms.

The experience of place physically and visually offers a narrative possibility of pictures, I call it the music of the visual.

Once quoted as an abundent meandering artistic production she rejects any notion of an association with theory, ‘I do what I do with my voracious interest in so many subjects.’ Much work comes straight from the heart perhaps some earlier work on something Ive seen at a given moment.

Sometimes its imagery from the internal landscape of the mind drawing on the shape of the life path. Photography is central to the way I work, the camera as companion to my artistic process recording my longstanding empathy with environment and the moving images of journeys and the rest.

Wendy Abbott

Wendy Abbott

Cuban Daydream

My Havana

Mixed media on paper

Mixed media on paper

109 x 48 cm

109 x 48 cm

£ 375

£ 375

I enjoy working along a long strip of paper as it allows me to work with speed and fluidity and hence this second piece was created as a second part to the one above. I wanted to create a pair of paintings to suggest contrast. The contrast of new and old Havana, the bleached monochrome of the dry stone buildings together with the bold colours found in the vintage cars still used there and the peeling paintwork of the buildings in the old town. In this painting I distressed the surface of the paper more, by damping it and creasing it after my initial thoughts and flow lines had been placed. I used areas of ink on wet paper to create shapes of tone and then added paint and gesso on top to give more layers of these shapes. Then the painting’s edges were torn to mimic decay before final speckles and splashes of ink and paint were added to create a really energetic outcome.

“Playfulness” as a chosen emotion topic allowed me to convey my feelings of fun, excitement and energy. I was inspired by an image of a street in Havana and used the colour palette (I saw there) of shocking pink of a car, the blue and green painted buildings and black of wrought iron balcony railings. The shapes of the arched doorways and window openings were used. I wrote down my thoughts and patterns in graphite and charcoal then swept across the paper with a wax resist.

Sweeps of paint and gesso were added next and once dry, ink was used in a very relaxed way to add a further layer and sense of unpredictability. The edges of the painting were torn before being mounted to continue to evoke the feeling of the decaying buildings.

Catalogue Positive emotions 2019 exhibition - KUNSTHUIS Gallery

Wendy’s Statement I am at my most relaxed and creative when producing an artwork based on how I am feeling at the time, evoking those feelings through the use of spontaneous and bold mark making and the use of colour/texture.

I am an optimistic and energetic person so through the topic of Positive Emotions my aim was to let my enthusiasm and excitement spill out onto paper in a natural way, and to produce something which truly represented me. I wanted the viewer to be able to feel what I was feeling and enjoy what they saw. To be taken away themselves to a different place and time.

I chose the emotion “Playfulness” after seeing a photograph taken in Havana, Cuba which depicted a shocking pink car in front of crumbling buildings painted in shades of blue and peppermint green.

The colour combination sang out to me instantly and conjured up feelings of warmth, Cuban rhythms and a party atmosphere.

I begin working with ideas whilst listening to music as it helps to dictate the speed and rhythms with which I draw.

Working along a long strip of paper, I write down my thoughts and feelings, adding shapes and lines in time with the music. Layers of paint, charcoal and gesso are then added to increase the surface texture which helps to convey the feeling of deterioration seen in Havana’s old buildings.

1 in 4 people will experience mental ill-health in their lifetime. We believe no-one should have to face a mental health problem alone.

If you live in the York area, we are here for you. We will help you get to where you want to be. We will listen, give support and advice, and fight your corner.

A big thank you to all participating artists, volunteers, organisations, friends and family who have helped to realise this amazing exhibition.

As curator of this show, I believe the arts have a role and a responsibility to encourage the transformational thinking required to move us away from the negative emotions we are confronted with daily, albeit it close to home or on a global scale.

Cecile Creemers, owner/curator Kunsthuis Gallery

York Mind is an independent provider of mental health services in York and its surrounding area. We offer a number of different services (on a self-referral basis) to help individuals who are experiencing mental ill-health. Our support includes: Counselling, Mental Health & Wellbeing Activities, Advocacy, Young People’s Services, Action Towards Inclusion (employability support) and Mental Health Training.

Whilst we are affiliated to the national charity ‘Mind’, York Mind are an independent charity, and we are responsible for raising and spending all of our own funds. This means that we rely on donations from generous individuals and groups to continue and expand our vital work in York.

We would like to say thank you to the Kunsthuis Gallery, and to everybody who has contributed to the Positive Emotions exhibition, for your support. www.yorkmind.org.uk 01904 643 364

York

OPENING TIMES Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 11am – 5pm Annual Christmas closing times: see website for details CONTACT INFORMATION Mill Green Farm, Crayke, YO61 4TT, North Yorkshire Phone 07495 – 270007 All enquiries: cecile@kunsthuisgallery.com

The Art Shop In 2018, Kunsthuis Gallery opened its new and exciting space ‘The Art Shop’. The gallery is proud to present beautiful handmade items from a wide range of British and International Arts and Crafts makers.

The shop will showcase contemporary interiors, a wide selection of beautiful jewellery, a diverse range of ceramics, sculptural work, photographs, prints, textiles and cards. Perfect for gifts, affordable and collectable art.

Gift vouchers available!

Café, Gardens & nursery The gallery shares its site with Dutch house Café, Gardens and nursery. A changing display of sculptures are a collaboration between Kunsthuis Gallery and the Dutch house Wildlife Garden. The plant nursery offers a wide range of quality grown plants.

The Dutch house café provides delicious food and drink, a warm atmosphere and a changing display of art, curated by the gallery. Please check website for opening times & menu: www.dutchhouseyorkshire.com

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MAP

Located between Crayke and Brandsby

GETTING HERE The Gallery is 15 miles north of York and 2 miles from Easingwold.

ACCESS We offer a free Car Park. The Gallery is fully accessible as we provide ramps for wheelchair access.

Gift vouchers available! www.kunsthuisgallery.com