Paintings by Sophie Barber, Jeb Haward and Kath Thompson.
1 June - 7 July 2019
Open Wednesday - Sunday 11 am - 5 pm
Exhibition tour: Saturday 1 June, 4 - 5 pm
Preview: Saturday 1 June, 5 - 7 pm
Kath Thompson, 'Drone', oil on canvas, 125 x 155 cm
Jeb Haward, 'Grand Piano', mixed media, 240 x 230 cm
Sophie Barber, 'Phil', oil on canvas, 270 x 180 cm
Three artists, born decades apart, are unified by a direct and uncompromising approach to their work. They have formed a cross-generational alliance founded on their belief in the sustained value of painting.
The youngest of the trio, Sophie Barber states, 'I always have an intention for the painting that I keep in mind, but then the painting has its own idea that I have to let take shape. I paint on the floor and wrestle the wet painting to the wall, I cut or paint sections out if they don’t work and wait to find another place in another painting for them. For me it’s like re-homing a dog. You want the best home for that dog and you don’t want to give it to a stranger or the wrong home.'
Kath Thompson draws inspiration from the ordinary things she encounters in her daily life-- a news item, a room, the telly, a visit to a museum. ‘What I want from my painting in the end is an imaginative transformation to take place through the paint and that the painting has presence, a life.’ Kath taught at the legendary Tunbridge Wells summer school run by Roy Oxlade and Rose Wylie in the 90’s.
As both a former student at the summer school and later Sophie’s teacher in Hastings, Jeb Haward provides a link between generations of artists. Jeb says his paintings may appear to the viewer as clumsy, awkward or peculiar; however, ’…they are meant to be meant, rather than liked, desired, good or contemporary. I intend for them to be authentic, irreducible, and the only option that I have remaining.’
