Chris Abbott

I was a late starter at most things. I got a BA(Hons) degree and a social work qualification at the age of 53 and did not start painting until I was aged 60. The last 3 years I have had some excellent tuition from a number of local artists, notably Rosemary Wels, Matthew Swain and Linda Baistow through the “Workers Educational Association”.

The paintings in this exhibition reflect a range of ideas I have wandered through in this journey, including childhood memories in an attempt to recapture the simplicity of that time and to break through the constraints that time binds your memory to. Another idea is death and all the emotions that are not spoken about, especially if you are a man, as it grows ever closer in my life.

Colour, Line and form and how this has an enormous impact upon my mood, what is reality and why memory is sometimes completely different and how I can express this difference.

Art has given me a fantastic lease of life and a new way of expressing thoughts, feeling, emotion and ideas that are both challenging and important to me, perhaps my way of seeing things is not so strange after all.

In the last 12 months I have had work accepted at a number of exhibitions including:
Leicester Open Art Exhibition
Chelsea Open Art Exhibition
‘Patchings farm’ Summer Exhibition
E.A.C Art Awards, The Mall Gallery, London
View from the Top Gallery

I have also sold a number of paintings, much to my surprise. I work in watercolours, acrylic, pencil, pastels and mixed media.

Artists that have influenced my development are Kurt Jackson, William Selby and Patrick Caulfield, but everyday I discover new artists and new styles that really inspire me to view things in a different light. It is this continuing discovery that makes painting, art and my life so exciting and challenging.

Email : christabbott@fsmail.net

Marcello Di Bonito

Marcello Di Bonito is an Environment Officer in Nottingham, he has a 1st degree in Earth Sciences from Naples, and a 2nd degree in Environmental Sciences from Nottingham. He first began his interest in photography at the age of 8yrs old on a school trip!

In the era of digital, I could consider myself a dinosaur,as I am very affectionate about 'old' films, slides and traditional black and white being my favourite medium. I started photography when a camera landed in my hands during a school trip to Pompei, I haven't stopped since then! I was completely captured by the amazing possibilities that you can attain whilst watching the world through a very small rectangular eye. Catching portions of the reality to encapsulate what is striking you at a specific time, in a specific moment, and keep it forever. It is like producing new realities with every shot, borrowing bits of a bigger reality, the one out there, to compose your own story, your dreaming journey through life, and the lives of the people you meet on your journey. I am exploring at the moment, looking at the world through others and by taking a picture, telling their story.

marcello.dibonito@yahoo.it

Matthew Rhodes

For as long as I can remember, I have had two passions in life, graphic design and movies. I am quite confident that I'll never be a movie star, so, with the need to find an original birthday present for a friend, my career as a fake movie star began.
I have been creating fake movie poster as gifts for a few years now, but have through this recent work developed a character called "White Dolemite. My personal graphic design work has slowly become a document of the career of this fake film star. And as the idea has grown, so has White Dolemite. He is not only a film actor, but also a recording artist and official face of "Prince" cigarettes and "Real Sangria" All of which is completely untrue, but through this work I hope to convince that during 70's, an actor forged and broke his own career without anyone noticing, leaving behind nothing but a collection of movies, record sleeves, magazine articles and adverts.

I have studied graphic design and worked in various aspects of the industry for some 10 years. The career of White Dolemite is a personal project done in my spare time.

For further information please email reverendvideomat@yahoo.co.uk