Professional Judges Panel for Fresh 2

The professional judges were all very impressed with the quality of the work in Fresh 2, they each expressed their difficulty in choosing just 6 for the exhibition competition & spend a good deal of time deciding!

From City Arts, Madeline Holmes(Chief Executive) & Kate Duncan(Programmer) shortlisted their 6 winners together. Their top 6 were - 1st Steven Ingman (for his use of texture & colours)
2nd - Gillian Choo,
3rd - Lora Redman,
4th - Davide Taristano,
5th - Eireann Lorsung &
6th - Gabriela Rogula.



Also judging on the professional panel & finding time out of his very hectic schedule was Jim Robertson - the Director of the New Art Exchange.

His top 6 were -
1st place - Chris Abbott - He particularly liked the red entry with the representation of rain.
2nd place he chose Lorna Hooper - for the character in her paintings.
3rd - Clinton Croson - for the use of colour and reminder of holidays.
4th place - Joan Beal - for the simple depiction aiding memories.
5th place - Kate Clark - he chose her piece for its difference in the exhibition & liked the gap created by the lines.
6th place - Nik Ellis - He commented that they were very atmospheric and created a feeling of despair.

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

Anna Wels

Kate Clark

The primary concern of my work is with the interaction of colours. By their positioning, colours respond and react to each other and can be manipulated to create unusual effects and movement. I use a range of bold colours and lines to enhance this process, also creating the illusion of depth and space in otherwise two-dimensional works. My use of board for some pieces enables me to experiment with unconventional shapes, which add another layer to the spatial dimension.

My paintings are based on complex colour codes, yet the aim is for serenity and harmony despite tonal dissonance. Although my work is mainly commission-based, I take inspiration from seasonal modes and vivid moments of colour in everyday life.

Email: kateclarkart@hotmail.com

Niall Young

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember, but have been working professionally for the last two and a half years. I studied art at Derby College of Higher Education, finishing in 1980 and since then have concentrated on developing the technique of Hyper-pointillism – the use of millions of tiny dots of ink placed individually by Rotoring pens to build a realistic, often exaggerated, image. I have exhibited my work at Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby Playhouse Gallery, Derby Guildhall, the Wirksworth Festival, Cromford Mill, Derby Arboretum Orangery, the Willington Festival and Buxton Pavilion.

I take inspiration from the work of the Surrealists and Pre-Raphaelites, those who exploit symbolism and allegory within their pictures to make comments about life. I enjoy creating a juxtaposition of images that have something to say, that use a visual vocabulary to explore the issues of life, dreams and fantasies. These can be quite personal to me, but I hope not inaccessible to others, who can overlay their own significance. My aim is to produce work containing recognisable, highly defined, at times exaggerated images, which when seen in combination can be aesthetically pleasing, yet can challenge, disturb or unsettle.