This identity is made hand in hand with the society Garner lives within:  an essentially circular process where society draws its ideas about how to view and experience landscapes from visual culture, while at the same time artists like Tim Garner reflect and react to current attitudes in society.

To view Tim Garner’s full portfolio click here

Garner’s co created vision of our human landscape is often dark and brooding, perhaps as a reflection of our ideas of the North.  His work, however, is also coloured with an uplifting, almost spiritual mood. This beauty comes from his intense observations of the everyday, from the folds of the northern hills and the ghostly impressions of buildings to the bleak, empty streets.  Their gritty mundanity is key to their soul.

Garner’s paintings capture the essence of the Northern landscape expressed through our current cultural desires.  We no longer want the Victorian picturesque or even post modern irony and detachment.  In Tim Garner’s work we move forward from here to see an engagement in the landscape but without sentimentality or romance.

The foundation of Garner’s work is photographic, providing a clear choice of what to frame or to view.  A landscape is something that we can take in at a glance; incorporating what we consider important and disregarding what we choose to ignore.  It’s interesting to see that Garner’s work contains both our shadows and our dreams.

These chosen vistas are overlaid with paint and texture building up emotional layers into something which becomes an internal vision of the original landscape.

| More about Tim Garner |

Tim Garner is originally from Charlesworth near Manchester, and went on to train at Cardiff University before practising as an artist for over 20 years in France.  He was supported in Brittany by Claudie le Breton, president of the Council for Cote d’Armor, who designated him a studio.  His work over this period was mainly large scale collage and sculpture which he exhibited in a variety of group and solo exhibitions which were backed by his patron.

Garner then went on to live and practise in Paris for many years where his work shifted into experimental photography.  He used squats and old factories as housing and studios

His return to Manchester has again seen a transformation of his work towards landscape painting.  Tim sees this current work as a way to create something positive by giving people a voice, an identity and a history.  Imagery which touches on a profound level and that people can live and voyage with for a life time.

To view Tim Garner’s full portfolio click here

Melegari’s recent success and collectability stems from a style which manages to create a dark tension alongside an extremely human vulnerability.

Please click here to view Carl Melegari’s work.

The works’ titles allude to historical figures, some with direct references to myth, such as Icarus, who attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax.

Other titles are more shadowy and ambiguous such as Mencius; perhaps referring to Mencius of China who sought to defend the teachings of Confucius.

Yet another title seems to point to Seneca a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist.

These tenuous links to history and past lives help to add a certain mystery and depth to Melegari’s work, however the paint itself is as much the subject as the people depicted.

“The figures themselves probably owe much to my solitude as an artist, but that feeling of isolation is perhaps incidental,” explains Melegari.

“I often get asked if there is a message behind my paintings. What interests me much more is the paint itself and how it reacts with the surface.

But I have to concede that the result is often a subject who looks to be searching for his or her soul – probably a similar emotion being felt by many artists.”

The result is a series of paintings where the paint seemingly cascades down the canvas, their depth further enhanced by the artist’s use of dense and muted pigments, leaving behind a subject matter perhaps deliberately shrouded in mystery.

His current style of painting is, however, a relatively new departure as he previously focused heavily on plein air painting – the style particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.

“That taught me above all else the use of local colour and a rather muted palette, which I’ve taken with me,” he says.  ”I certainly now feel more comfortable than ever before with my output.”

Art work can be bought using the Own Art Scheme; an interest free loan which spreads the cost over 10 months and makes purchasing art work easy and affordable.

To view Matt Wilde’s portfolio click here

The ‘Keep Up’ exhibition is a running commentary on life in the city.  Wilde’s work has a raw energy.  His figures represent the daily battle with the comings and goings of getting from A to B.

‘Life is something that happens while you’re making other plans’.

Spinningstop

“I work in a way that captures movement and this comes from a quick, sketchy approach that stems from life studies and actually drawing people as they go about their daily business.

The urge to get the ideas from mind to canvas is evident in the immediateness of the charcoal or brush strokes. The fast pace of the thought process and work style coincide with the fast pace of today’s lifestyles.”

Frappucino To Go with Extra Cream

His streetscapes are hard-edged yet with a humorous charm. The irony and self-deprecation of Matt’s work give an opportunity to release daily anxieties with a quiet smile. He invites you into his world with little witticisms and observations that punctuate his visual prose.

“I think that the viewer can relate to the paintings in one way or another. Is it you waiting for the train or bus to arrive, or you rushing through the crowds while chatting on your mobile phone, or perhaps it’s you reading the latest headlines in the paper or feeling lost amongst the crowds.”

Late Night Shopping with Dad

“I have incorporated newspaper cuttings along with shopping receipts and tickets from public transport since 1998. I feel that they serve a purpose as a foundation to my work, capturing a moment in time along with dates and headlines. I sometimes add political humour to the work by creating my own headlines in newspapers, billboards or on adverts seen on taxis and buses, I feel that these small attentions to detail keep the observer interested in the work and help them to find something new in each view.”

An Uplifting Commute

Matt’s use of urban architecture shows the glamour that attracts you to the Big City. While this is a world we all too easily recognise, through Wilde’s eyes we somehow come to grips with its enormity and pathos.

To view Matt Wilde’s portfolio click here