10 - 22 June 2008

10am - 5pm

Informal Gallery Talk with Carole Rolfe: Thursday 12 June at 12noon

Watercolour Demonstration with Jennifer Johnson:
Thursday 19 June at 12noon

Jennifer Johnson

Carole Rolfe

Hilary Townsend

Michele Meyer

Jeremy Goode

Brought together by a shared interest in farming or a creative inspiration directly from the natural world, the artists in this annual exhibition offer a personal response to their theme: The Shapes of Nature.

Michele Meyer is a sculptor who, inspired by her intense love for and involvement with nature and farming, explores the contour, shape and movement of animals.

This year, as a natural progression, we see her exploring the human body on an excitingly larger scale.

Jennifer Johnson will exhibit a new body of watercolours in her typically loose, illustrative style, and will contrast these with some large charcoal drawings. Her current interests include water, reflections and clouds in the landscape and coast, and her collection will include paintings made in Ireland and the Isles of Scilly, as well as more local studies.

Jennifer's background is in advertising, book illustration and design. She now tutors in the South Hams and abroad, carries out commissions for private and business clients, regularly gives watercolour demonstrations to art clubs and societies, and exhibits widely.

This summer, she will once again take up her role as Artist in Residence at the annual Ways With Words literary festival at Dartington, where she can be found making lively, spontaneous pencil and watercolour sketches of speakers and visitors.

Carole Rolfe explores the possibilities of fused and slumped glass techniques, often with the creative addition of colour, and sometimes allowing clear glass to speak and sparkle for itself.

"I am fascinated by the natural aesthetics that develop after the fusion in the kiln of sections of clear glass. When contoured and layered it displays unusual refractive qualities as light penetrates and falls across the surface, creating subtle, watery, aquamarine pools of natural colour amid glistening clear transparent spaces."

Carole sees these as primitive sculptural forms, and enjoys the tension between the planning and design, and the unpredictable nature of the process.

Carole talks of "the joy of working with light," and describes how, after years of painting, she now uses glass as her canvas.

Carole produces both free standing and wall hanging pieces, and has this year been working on a significant commission involving a series of 15 hanging panels.

Jenny Distin is a woodcarver with an eclectic range of subject matter. She generally works with little planning and rarely uses sketches or models, instead allowing the shape and grain of the wood to dictate the direction of the sculpture.

Most of the wood she uses is English hardwood from local sources, carved with a traditional mallet and chisel, and finished with beeswax or oil. She takes care not to 'overfinish' the sculpture, as she feels this would detract from the natural texture, which she firmly believes is best enjoyed by touch.

Jeremy Goode's background is in graphic design in London and Portugal, but he has now settled in Cornwall and is able to focus on water's edge pencil studies of rowing boats, cliff side pastel studies, and harbour and sea views in oils.

'I just love the fresh atmosphere of the coast, and I hope that I sprinkle some of it through my art.'

Hilary Townsend is a new member of the Shapes of Nature group, who responds with oil paints and oil pastels to the natural world around her Dartmoor home. Hilary studied at Dartington College of Arts, and has recently returned to painting full-time.

Harbour House 2008 ©