Autumn Open 2015
The exhibition at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery (21st Nov, 2015 - 6 Feb, 2016)
was judged by artist Marguerite Heywood. Hers are the comments below each successful work.
Accentia Prize for Best in Show;
Sam Bahia, Winter in King William Street, Blackburn
This very English townscape is, in the experience of most people, an unexceptional scene,
yet by virtue of the art of painting it is transfigured. Something overlooked
becomes meaningful and an everyday experience is given significance.
The muted colours, leaden sky and luminous glass all contribute to a real visual experience.
Commended works
Katie Timson – Woodland Jay
The contrast between the reality of the jay and the theory of the text collage throw the actuality of nature into a sharp relief which is realised in paint. The feathers cleverly vanish into a feathered paper edge.
Pauline C Warriner – Canalside Mills
This is like a document from another era. The white on black milky reflections draw us backwards.
There is something strange and chilling about this image.
George Pott – Waiting for Tom
A well observed, apparently unobserved, woman lost in a moment with her shopping completed and her life clearly not. We are drawn to her reverie.
Joan Parkinson – Tour de France in Haworth
This is the image which decades in the future will express the extraordinary feel of that hot bike ride in Yorkshire. A photo records but a painting memorialises
Carole Pugh – The Scenic Route
An elegant, intelligent composition which leads to an extraordinary red flash.
The place and the light feel real and genuinely observed.
Paddy Campbell – Windy Ridge
This painting can be experienced at a distance and the colours are curious but effective. Near to, the horizon keeps moving further away. It plays with our perceptions.
Janet Grierson
– Longiflorum Lily in Bud
There is a Hockneyesque feel to this rather contrary flower painting.
The negation of colour, a vase sliced off, the gloomy looming shadow all combine to make an intriguing, unsettling painting.
Claude Brun Prize for a student work
Laura Docherty,
After Anne Boleyn