Wednesday 25 April 2012

The Incredible Journey

Hello everyone

As the month of April trickles away and the amazing Worlds Apart exhibition heads towards its final weekend, I've been thinking about how both artists, Kevin Low and Stewart Bremner have been on quite an epic journey to have arrived at this show.

I think it's fair to say that all artists are on a journey of some sort when they create a new body of work, and that in doing so they bring with it their inner-most thoughts, observations and life experiences.  I think that artist Stewart Bremner's new work epitomises this often gruelling and emotional process. 

Some of you who have visited the exhibition will know that Stewart's work is largely a response to his relatively new relationship with fellow artist Megan Chapman.  Of course, some of you will have viewed the paintings 'just as they are' with no back story, and simply appreciated them for all that makes a great painting - and that's brilliant too.  Very abstract in form, Stewart's work can pack a punch and trigger the imagination unlike many other styles of painting.  I guess I am in a privileged position as a gallery owner, and indeed I believe it is my business to learn as much as possible about the work we exhibit and the creator.  I find it impossible to separate the two.  Ultimately, what makes the artist 'tick' is revealed in the final product - which makes it all the more fascinating.

So I take my hat off to Stewart Bremner for having the courage to lay down in paint such personal thoughts, and to produce work that is both compelling and beautiful.  I've been wondering what love looks like - perhaps it looks like this:

















'Two Worlds Collide', mixed media, by Stewart Bremner.

How do you encapsulate the highs and lows, the uncertainties and the hopes of a relationship in such an uncertain world?  For me, in this strange world, I think this is the one:
 
















'When We Float', mixed media, by Stewart Bremner.

Artists Stewart Bremner and Megan Chapman will be heading to the States, Megan's home, next month.  I'm sure that the journey that played such a big role in Worlds Apart will continue and will flourish in the work.  I wish them both well.

Speak soon.

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