The Creative Art Gallery, in Woodstock, lives up to its name with innovative exhibitions. Side by side with some original lithographs, etchings and engravings by Matisse and Miro are works by contemporary artists inspired by these two great artists. All are for sale.
Claire Harrison studied at the Ruskin School, Oxford. “The sensual colour of Matisse and the graphic lines of Miro’s are what I aim to fuse in my work.”
Her abstract mixed-media Sticks in the Garden bursts with purples, oranges and greens highlighted with careful detail, a reminder of Miro’s aquatint Saccades in pink and orange.
Sam Wadsworth wins prizes for his portraits. For this exhibition he chooses a set of limited edition prints that suggest Matisse’s cut-out collages; in Abington Park Sun (pictured), as it bursts through the branches of the trees to illuminate sharply outlined leaves in shades of green and grey.
Jill Colchester’s dynamic, confident and deceptively easy line-drawings display an economy of movement that brings to mind the fluidity and simplicity of Matisse’s engravings of the Greek goddess, Pasiphae 1981.
She studied contemporary dance; hence her empathy with the body as can be seen in her sinuous print Rosa 5.
Jan Richie designed textiles for dress fabrics and wallpaper. For her set of lino prints, based on an Oxfordshire travelling circus, she uses viridian, Wedgwood blue and raw umber. Acrobat (pictured), influenced by Matisse’s Dance of Life, has three figures moving in time to the music beneath stylised spotlights.
In a different vein, Richard Briggs’s pen and ink watercolours highlight the fine details of his buildings. The Bear at Woodstock is alive with folk walking, cycling and chatting, while his Tom Tower is a graceful record of the beautiful architecture of Oxfordshire.
n 43 Oxford Street, Woostock, until February 27. Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 11am-5pm.
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