Primavera is a show bringing together paintings by Martina Šišková that have been made between late 2023 and May 2025, accompanied by a few recent watercolours on paper. 

The Tondo paintings have in common the subject matter; flowers and the circular shape of wooden supports. Within that framework each has its own story to tell; it’s own emotion and a reason for being. As well as its own language, to an extent; it often feels as if every painting demands a new way of looking and handling the paint. 

I work primarily with oils and pigments mixed with oils. Each piece starts out as a pencil drawing; to me that is the blueprint, the skeleton of what is to come. There is a moment when I almost completely erase the drawing, which is actually quite difficult; a ghost of it always stays in the tooth of the gesso surface; and it feels like the image has slipped into the painting’s subconsciousness. It has been an important milestone, but one that has to be overcome, if I am to make a painting that is true to paint and the evolution of my relationship with the subject matter; with the flower that is in front of me.

The most straightforward reason why I paint flowers is that they are beautiful.  Unapologetically themselves; at times vulnerable and soft, at others wild and alien-like. But most of all they are life-affirming, like when spring has just began, the ground is still bare but first green shoots are emerging; first tender leaves unfurling and everything is imbued with potential. It would be hard to put a finger on why exactly; it could be a change of wind; the colour of sun; but spring has started.

That is the essence I want to capture; when the flowers have just opened; full of life; perfect; a moment of out of time existence. Considering the full circle of growth, it is a fleeting stage; and I think that the sense of potential can be found in any part of it. But in visual terms, capturing this moment of a new blossom is how I can convey it the best.

The organic shapes and dynamics between them remind me of inner psychological and emotional states; the harmonies; tensions, contrasts; synchronicities. I see them as reflections of inner worlds as much as things of tangible reality.

I hope you enjoy the show.

Martina

KATE GIBB 

Kate has worked as a printmaker and illustrator for over twenty years from her print studio in Paddington. A silkscreen obsessive, her early studies in printed textiles fuelled her inherent love of colour and pattern which continually provide the basis for the majority of her work. The kind of printing she is inspired by relies on chance, hiccups and happy accidents. Technically her practice is self taught, experimental and continually evolving.

Commercially she is renowned for her music-related sleeve artwork, most notably for a long standing relationship with The Chemical Brothers. Non-commercially she continues to explore the silk-screen process, its tactile nature and subtle nuances providing the many graphic characteristics typical of her one-off pieces and hand-screened editions.

Past Clients include 180 Amsterdam, Apple, M&C Saatchi, Pentagram, SonyBMG, Virgin Records, EMI Music Publishing, Creative Review, Nike, Dries Van Noten, Levis, Penguin Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, The Guardian & Observer, Wired US, Stussy, Adidas Originals, V&A, ‘+81 Japan’, Bloomberg Financial, IDEA Magazine.

Leigh Driver

I create contemporary works in a variety of media on board, canvas and paper, taking inspiration from the English landscape, its history and its weather.

I am drawn to places where traces of the past are most evident, collecting information in notes, videos, sound recordings and photographs, as well as experimenting with expressive marks in sketchbooks.

Later, in my Brandon studio, images emerge from a combination of observation, and memory, often including a variety of viewpoints and emotions to evoke a sense of place and the passage of time. Although the choice of medium is influenced by my response to the subject, the majority of my work is in acrylic, mixed media or watercolour. 

Taking the landscape as my starting point I use a variety of media to carry out further investigation, seeking to reveal the transitions between the hidden and tangible layers of human engagement with the environment over time. Drawing on this research I work in the studio to create work that explores both past and present filtered through my own experience of a particular place. Now and then the ghosts of figures wander into the scene. At other times, images seem to come almost entirely from within, as if from dreams remembered: these have become my Inner Landscapes series.

In the early 1980s I studied Fine Art under the guidance of Graham Boyd at the Hertfordshire College of Art and Design. As well as painting and drawing, I particularly enjoyed printmaking and sculpture; both occasionally make a reappearance in my practice. Following a move from Hertfordshire to Suffolk over 30 years ago, I re-trained as a historian and wrote a couple of books about landscape history but returned to art in 2004 when I founded a community arts organization, West Suffolk Arts Centre CIC (WSAC). Since then, I have curated projects for Arts Council England, Suffolk County Council and a number of independent arts organisations. For the past decade my work has focused mainly on performance, sound art and the moving image but a period of ill-health in late 2020 prompted a reappraisal of my practice and I rediscovered my love of mark-making.

• July/August 2020  EXHIBITION - Stuart Roy

 https://www.artfinder.com/artist/stuart-roy 

• He studied fine art whilst at university in Wales, but quickly became involved in photography on a professional level. When he eventually settled in Suffolk and then Norfolk the move re-ignited his interest in painting.

As an artist he is constantly developing his personal style and exploring new ways of creating work to capture the atmosphere and the colour of a scene.