STROUD ARTISTS AT SIXTEEN
- sixteen online
- Aug 24
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
SIXTEEN GALLERY
27 NOVEMBER -- 10 DECEMBER
STROUD ARTTISTS COOPERATIVE (SAC)
THE SAC SELECT WINTER EXHIBITION FEATURES STEVE VANSTONE, EWEN HYDE, ABIGAIL WADDELL, CHRIS JAMES, CLARE HINES JANE CUNNINGHAM, MICK MILLS, NIGEL CALVERT, MIKE SKINNER AND GILL COX.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
STEVE VANSTONE
Steve is a self taught artist based in Stroud. He started life as a photographer but moved over to oil painting in 2016.
“Painting gives an artist the ability to observe what is there and then through a process of enhancement and simplification, make a work that conveys mood and atmosphere. I find this process of exaggeration and omission fascinating. Our surroundings can inspire us to feel many different kinds of emotion, connecting perhaps with a memory, place or person close to our hearts. As a photographer I used to look for powerful lines and shapes to make a subject interesting. This transfers well over to painting , using a similar approach to create a sense of space and the placement of certain objects to create an evocative image. “
EWEN HYDE
Ewen’s work is almost entirely constructed using salvaged, reclaimed materials, and tends to focus on the less immediately obvious beauty found within nature. Often the properties of the material provide the inspiration for the work.
ABIGAIL WADDELL
I am a contemporary landscape artist, I paint regularly en plein air and sketch out most days. The oil sketches are then taken to the studio and finished and/or worked from to inform much bigger works on canvas. My main focus is on the relationship between the light on the land/ sea and the light in the sky. I am currently represented by the Cotswold Sculpture Park, and Spencer House Gallery, Tetbury, and online by Britishcontemporary.art. I have won a number of awards for plein air painting including Gloucester Art in the City and The Spirit of Malvern competitions. I organise painting workshops, commissions and visits at my Cotswold Studio - all can be arranged via link below
CHRIS JAMES
Chris works in ceramics, paint, ink and wood. Former lecturer in engineering. Winner of a contemporary award for plein air painting in 2023. Creates experimental spontaneous dynamic urban sketches using bleach, wax applied with hand made tools. An advocate of environmental action through high quality public art including the conversion of a stone bus stop into a library with an allotment mural and more recently the creation of a mural covered shed for the Cheltenham Science Festival celebrating the science of growing food (commission for Gloucester Heritage Centre).
CLARE HINES
Clare has studied art at Stroud School of Art and will be starting a masters in Fine Art at the University of Gloucestershire in September. She mainly creates abstact art – both paintings and 3D art.
Art for Clare is something to do that’s fun; that helps her make sense of the world; cheer her up when she’s a bit blue or under the weather. Her work is vibrant and full of colour. All of Clare’s art reflects her sense of fun, curiosity, enthusiasm and desire to make things a little better for everyone. All of it is from the heart – how she is moved in the act of creating it. It is what you see and your imagination can make it anything.
JANE CUNNINGHAM
After studying ceramics at Loughborough College of Art and Texas Christian University, Jane became involved in theatre - small scale touring and work with young people and community. She designed sets, props, costumes, lighting, sound, and video, also stage and production managing numerous projects over several decades. While she has worked with a wide range of materials and techniques, ceramics has always been in the mix, and having at least partly stepped back from the world of theatre, is able to apply herself more to clay work.
MICK MILLS
Studied Fine Art Painting at Chelsea School of Art and Post Graduate Diploma in Ceramics at Goldsmiths College. Taught both subjects and led Foundation Diploma programme at Oaklands College St.Albans. Now relocated from London to Stroud and developing my own art practice, which is currently focussed on abstract painting with some figurative references.
NIGEL CALVERT
I was fascinated by the medium of blown glass both because of its final form and purity of colour. It isn’t paint but I approached it from a water colour perspective. I was lucky enough to be taught by Peter Layton and Bruce Marks.
This is a series of platters that begin as blown vessels that are spun out when still molten hot to become plates The molten glass colours are applied twisted and distorted into shapes at a very early stage in the process as the molten glass mixes in the process I can never be sure how the design will appear until it’s spun out and can’t be changed
I have made many and strive for recognisable or abstract designs buried in the glass.
MIKE SKINNER (ASGFA FRSA)
Mike's artworks are driven by a client’s brief with his main interest being modern British subjects. From abstract to figurative he does not restrict his use of materials and methods used in the image making process.
Mike is a council member of The Drawing Society/The Society of Graphic Fine Art. founded in 1919, the Society promotes fine drawing skills in both traditional and contemporary media. Today there are more than 180 members. Mike is also a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.
He has exhibited in: London, The Royal Academy of Arts, The Mall Gallery, The Brick Lane Gallery, The Menier Gallery, Christies Fine Art London. Chelsea Harbour Design Centre. Southwest, The Victoria Art Gallery Bath, The Corinium Museum Cirencester, The Paragon Gallery, Sixteen Gallery, Spring Gallery, Cheltenham, Broadway Museum Gallery Broadway, The RWA Bristol.
GILL COX
Gill Cox is a well travelled linguist and practising artist, who has lived in Spain, Switzerland, & Scotland. She moved to the Cotswolds in 2002. In 2009, she co-founded Crescent Art Space; a studio and exhibition space based in Cheltenham.
Her oil paintings are a bold, colourful style, incorporating aspects of abstraction. They are observational from life. Gillian’s painting method is strong, impressionistic and lively. She works in oils on durable canvas parchment, and art panels. Her colour palette is limited, usually to 5 or 6 oil colours, plus titanium white, which gives her work harmony. And she favours Old Holland, Michael Harding and the American Gamblin brands of oil paint.
Her brushmarks are rapid and the paint is applied as heavily as possible from one stroke. Although she does not use a palette knife, her impasto mark making is as intense. She paints only from life: “sur le motif”. And uses a wet on wet layering approach.
ABOUT STROUD ARTISTS COOPERATIVE
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