A starry collection of leading contemporary artists gather for Christmas at Sladers Yard. Drawn from the South West for the quality and integrity of their work, these eight painters are all inspired by the local landscape which they represent each in their own unique vision. Look with new eyes having seen these wonderful works by artists at the height of their powers.

David Inshaw’s successful West Bay exhibition at Sladers Yard in the summer attracted a tremendous response from the many people who love his work. In the place where he has found such inspiration, his pictures have particular resonance as may be seen in the new works we show now.

John Hubbard has lived and painted in the Bridport area for the past forty or so years. His abstract impressionist paintings have been inspired by gardens and coast, often the Cornish coast. Now in his seventies, alongside his large scale abstract oils, John has returned to his beginnings, painting representational watercolours of great depth and charm. The series of six paintings show Porthmeor Beach at dusk with a remarkable sense of colour and pattern.

Alex Lowery has made his name painting West Bay. Sladers Yard opened showing his paintings. Now he is back to celebrate the gallery’s first full year. His unforgettable understated paintings cut away all the clutter of modern life to a smooth clear-eyed space where the infinite meets the mundane.


Sladers Yard Christmas Show
The scored, grainy surfaces of Vanessa Gardiner’s abstracted landscapes bring together powerful architected forms and dramatic natural features, headlands, cliffs, deep coves. The browns, blues, darkness and sharp greens in her work ring true notes in these strong and very interesting paintings. Living near Lyme Regis, her work often recalls the north Cornish coast of her childhood.

Marie-Claire Hamon’s landscapes are edgy transient places of the imagination where febrile deer walk between the pylons, where caravans gather under trees, where a delicate gate stands alone in a field. Her colours are unusual, subtle and attractive. Originally from Holland, Marie-Claire now lives in Eastern Cornwall.

Ian Brook’s watercolours of the Dorset hills and coast combine an English watercolour technique using washes with the Danish style of keeping each colour discreet.

Tim Nicholson carries the Nicholson family talent for playful simplicity and amazing clarity. His works seem delightful and almost childlike on first sight then grow in sophistication as you get to know them. His fearless use of colour and joyful relish of pattern and the artifice of painting make his work a refreshing wake up call.

Henrietta Hoyer Millar’s subject matter stays close to home and the deeply familiar. She approaches the Dorset landscape with the delicacy and relish of a dearly held friend. Her close observation leads to painterly and strikingly reminiscent works, the colours freshly observed and precisely chosen. She uses the surface of her boards to make textural works, the paint scored, smeared, thick or thin, to create her appealing works. Henrietta’s studio is just outside Bridport.

The Bridport area inspires a great many artists and we are proud to showcase some of the best. These inspiring painters join Petter Southall’s charismatic furniture, a constant and vital feature of Sladers Yard. He has a unique and expressive style of woodwork. His showroom brings together top level makers showing baskets, textiles, ceramics, sculpture, woodware, clothes, jewellery and more, creating a centre of excellence for all things handmade.

Anna Powell, Sladers Yard, West Bay, Bridport, Dorset DT6 4EL
Art Yard and Café Open 10 – 5pm Wed to Sat, 11 – 5pm Sundays
www.sladersyard.co.uk
info@itrefurniture.co.uk
T: 01308 459511

Petter Southall's showroom with Philosophy - Julian Bailey, Derek Nice and Petter Southall - West Bay - Beatitudes featuring Cheryl Campbell - Miranda Creswell's paintings and drawings - West Bay - Beatitudes by David Inshaw - Alfred Stockham, Miranda Creswell and Petter Southall - Out to Sea - Bailey Nice and Southall - The Need to Dream - Vanessa Gardiner - Tim Nicholson - Sladers Yard Christmas Show - Robin Rae - Petter Bjorn Southall - A New Lease of Life - Angels and Demons Christopher Row - Alex Lowery - Akiko Hirai - Andrea Stemmer - Andrew George - Asaf Tolkovsky - Gerry Dudgeon - Goldfinger Jewellery - Ian McKay - Kate Lynch - Linda Bloomfield - Lindean Mill Glass - Makeba Lewis - Margo Selby - Matt Fothergill - MissPrint - Nawal Gebreel - Peter Swanson - Petter Southall - Svend Bayer - Tim Nicholson - Wallace Sewell