Southampton City Gallery 2022

Push High, Fall Low, Share (Playground Swings) 100x60 Acrylic on canvas

 

A small series of water related paintings

These paintings are inspired by a couple of personal  photographs

The  negative shapes in a small detail of a large ink drawing were the starting point for Outta Here 

Tiny Hiker was inspired by old found photographs

This series of the "skipping rope" was influenced by Kyra Gaunt's TED Talk "How the Jump Rope got its Rhythm" http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=8553

A simple rope evoking memories of such a special time took me back to every break time at school when all of the girls would skip. I love the idea of the continuity of these childhood games incorporating rhythm and song ~ the skipping rope ~ "the object that carries the memory through"

With skipping in mind, I began the pieces by transferring the texture of a rope onto the paper by using wax, as well as dipping the rope into paint and flicking the paper with it as though skipping

The starting point for this series was triggered by the writing of Chris Corrigan regarding the chrysalis. Not long after reading the article, the whole world was required to be ina state of isolation.

"Inside the chrysalis, your ideas about yourself dissolve and life itself takes over. Watch for the small signals, watch for what happens at the edges." http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/into-the-chrysalis/

Cyclone Idai inflicted devastation in Mocambique in March 2019. Both text and voice messages recorded by local people were used as the starting point for these pieces

The inspiration to make this piece came whilst listening to Terry Patten speaking on "Living the Integral Heart" https://theshiftnetwork.com/course/IntegralHeart. He spoke of the heart's "knowing"/heart intelligence and how it never fails to guide - "The heart sees the forest and never gets lost in the Trees".

Love is the Ocean of the Heart ~The idea for this painting came from the observation of people at the seaside; so much more relaxed, inspired and kinder to each other. A play on love and the ocean

Although made at slightly different times, the starting points for all of these pieces were photographs that I had taken of people enjoying the summer at the seaside

These paintings were made in response to a Woodland Management scheme that took place near to where I lived. I felt the need to record some of the magnificent Red Western Cedar trees that had been planted almost seventy years ago before they were to befelled

Attached to the Moon was part of a series called Seasons which was exhibited at the Southampton City Gallery in 2018

Poised on Frozen Wing was made after reading a section of a poem of the same name. I began the painting by pressing the board into the snow which gave the texture to the under painting layer

The fierce and unusual snow storms in March 2013 which caused many sheep to perish as they had already been let out into the fields was the idea behind these two paintings

The notion behind this drawing was the constellation of Taurus and was part of a body of work linking to the cosmos. The carbon used to make the work - charcoal, pencil - in parallel with the idea that "we are all from the stars" as suggested by Carl Sagan

Leaving Newtown Creek is based on the place Newtown Creek, Isle of Wight. All of its history, the old river channel, ancient wooden sea wall, amazing bird life. Not much has changed over the centuries. Although always sad to leave the creek, it's such an uplifting place to visit - this was the intent for this painting

This piece is part of a series relating to an allotment on the banks of the Itchen River in Southampton. An observation of growth of garden and of mind

These paintings are part of a body of work relating to memories of place 

Memory is, by nature, fragmented. Many people have left this place and are now scattered all over the world. Not only are the memories now physically broken but also “displaced”. To reinforce this unsettled feeling, memories of "home" were requested and used in their text form before being superimposed by various materials, texture, line and colour in an attempt to convey the process ofdisplacement and fragmentation of memory of place.

© Copyright Brenda Ullrich