Festival 15 - Jean Davey Winter

Jean Davey Winter: About the work:

A fascination with travel and the concept of the journey provide me with an ongoing source of inspiration. Over the years this has included a microlight flight over the volcanic island of Lanzarote; a road trip through New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and more recently a visit to the island of Cuba, the starting point for this new work.

Cuba has an extraordinary culture, a dense web of associations and contrasts which conjure up words like: seductive, poetic, alchemy and magic. There is a constant awareness that this vibrancy, colour and energy combine and conflict with reminders of a darker past.

Many diverse elements from these experiences are now coming together as the work continues to develop: glimpses of colours and textures and the fragmented memories of travel. It is intentionally ambiguous, hopefully to allow sufficient space for the viewer to bring their own interpretations to it.

Working practice:

Coming from a textile background I enjoy the freedom of working with mixed media. The opportunity to build up surfaces, to combine this with collage plus the fluid qualities and mark making potential of paint; I love the feeling of anticipation – that anything can happen, as a new piece begins.

What I find most difficult is the ‘letting go’, that moment of realisation that some of the bits you have become most attached to have to be sacrificed if there’s any chance of making the painting work – that’s the hard part….

Future hopes for Hastings Arts Forum:

Hastings Arts Forum has been transformed over the ten years since I first exhibited there. There have been major structural improvements to the gallery itself and the whole ethos and ambition of the Forum has become very much more ambitious and professional.

Whilst maintaining it’s commitment to the community I hope it will also continue to thrive and develop with the emphasis on curated shows, both group and solo, and maybe create a series of major annual exhibitions following on from the precedent set by Festival 15.

More about Jean and her work can be seen on her website

Jean Davey Winter

FESTIVAL 15 - Celebrating 15 years of the Hastings Arts Forum

Hastings Arts Forum (HAF) was founded in 2003 by a group of artists and art enthusiasts with a shared commitment to support the visual arts in Hastings and St Leonards and to raise the profile of visual culture in the area. The Forum is now a registered charity and runs two adjoining gallery spaces on the sea front.  It is independent of any public funding and is almost totally reliant on its many committed and experienced volunteers. This makes it a space that is unique in Britain. 

The gallery offers professional artists the opportunity to exhibit at reasonable prices and gives all artist members and its volunteers the chance to show their work in annual shows. It develops exhibition programmes and has recently launched a new initiative called 'Rising Talent' where new and emerging artists can show their work in a professional gallery for the first time at no cost.

This year HAF is celebrating its 15 year anniversary by holding an exhibition and a series of events and talks that will showcase the extraordinary quality and range of artists connected with Hastings and St Leonards. Collectively entitled 'Festival 15', invitations to exhibit have been sent to a number of artists whose work has helped build the reputation of Hastings and St Leonards as a centre of artistic excellence. The exhibition will open on May 2^nd and the festival will last for two weeks. 

The aim of the festival is to bring attention to the excellence of art on offer in the area.  We will be contacting other local galleries and arts organisations to make sure that this opportunity to gain recognition is all encompassing. The exhibition at the Forum’s gallery will bring together the work of these highly-regarded artists’ work in one place and shine a light on the richness of the arts scene in Hastings and St Leonards.  We are very grateful to Matthew Burrows, Robin Holtom and Charlotte Snook who are curating the exhibition.

Lesley Barker, chair of the Forum’s exhibition committee.

Interviews with participating artists will appear here on the blog in the run up to the festival  so more soon! You can also check in via:

WEBSITE:      www.hastingsartsforum.co.uk

TWITTER       @hastingsarts

FACEBOOK   www.facebook.com/hastingsartsforum/