The eighth annual summer exhibition by the South Hams Arts Forum, titled Contemporary Passions VIII, is at Harbour House gallery in Kingsbridge this summer.
The varied and contemporary collection includes painting, printmaking, sculpture, glass and jewellery, showcasing the work of 10 members of this thriving artists’ collective, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
Anita Reynolds, well known for her moorland imagery, focuses this year on the Wonwell Estuary and the South West Coast Path. She shows large mixed media paintings, and smaller on-site studies.
Alison Veazey, whose work is pictured, also revisits familiar landscapes, previously approached through printmaking, and now explored in a series of mixed media pieces and a strong palette of reds.
Emma Cook‘s new work is inspired by the coastal walk from Bugle Rocks to Noss Mayo, with abstracted shapes explored in a vivid turquoise and embellished with metal foils, beadwork and embossing.
Maggie Smith‘s drypoints are inspired by her vegetable garden, and she also shows monoprints and mixed media pieces with a sea theme.
Rosemary Moser, too, responds to nature and the great outdoors, with drypoint etchings and acrylic paintings.
Inka Gabriel works with glass to produce tall, elegant lamps, often incorporating pebbles from the local shoreline, and Olivia Wotton‘s jewellery also incorporates shells from the beach near her workshop, which she combines with silver, gold, freshwater pearls, semi-precious stones, Swarovski crystals, handmade glass beads and fair trade Acholi beads.
Pippa Martins‘ handcrafted silver jewellery, too, is very much influenced by the textures and colours of the countryside, coastal areas and moorland of Devon.
Stella Wain-Heapy makes kiln-formed glass dishes depicting seascapes around the South Hams, using coloured dichroic and irridescent glasses, and introduces a new range of ‘free fall’ vases where the glass has been allowed to form its own shape in the kiln.
Joanna Martins is well known for her cold cast bronzes of hares and other native animals, and also develops inventive mixed media sculptures with a stong symbolism and which draw on her extensive travels and research in Africa.
Contemporary Passions VIII is at Harbour House in Kingsbridge from August 3 to 15. Admission is free. There will be an Opening View, and an opportunity to meet the artists, on August 3, from 6pm to 8pm. Find out more on the Harbour House website.
