Jen Manning and Mick Rafferty at Gallery150

From 19th July – 31st  July 2011, Gallery150 will be hosting the solo shows of Jen Manning and Mick Rafferty.

Red Poppy Acrylic on boxed canvas:  50.5 x 40.5 cm

Originally from West Sussex, Jen Manning currently lives in Warwickshire, working as a self-employed artist, painting portraits and commissions for private and corporate clients. Mainly self-taught, the artist predominantly works in acrylics covering a broad range of subjects, including the Warwickshire countryside, domestic life, flowers, and landscapes.  Primarily a realist artist, her work captures not only the detail and accuracy of a subject, but also emotions, with distortion towards abstraction and the contemporary.

Through the use of fresh vibrant colours and expressive imagery, her works primarily depict an escape from reality. Shadow and light are the particular details that bring her work to life. And whilst some of her subjects may appear ‘dark’, they actually allude to hope even in the darkest of places.

In ‘Reflections on Life and Nature’, an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s aunt who recently passed away, Jen Manning will be presenting a collection of over  thirty works, most of which have been created this year. “My aunt was a very close family member and it was her who encouraged me to paint and pursue art as a career”, states the artist.

On a more abstract note, Warwickshire painter Mick Rafferty will be holding his solo show, ‘Dripped, dropped and splattered’.

Rafferty’s eclectic paintings explore the “physicality” of pourable paint and themes from everyday life, such as modern culture, cinema, nature and the realms of human emotions. 

Calm down, calm down 100 x 80 cm

Clearly influenced by the techniques of Jackson Pollock and Gerhardt Richter, in the same manner as the latter, Rafferty often begins his work with only a vague idea of what he actually wants to achieve, building up cumulative layers in a non-representational way until he is satisfied with the end result.

The artist, who favours the use of colourful, commercial gloss paints, intervenes as little as possible, physically disassociating himself from the canvas, pouring, dripping and manipulating the paint by exploiting the laws of gravity. This gestural form of abstraction culminates in a sometimes disturbing, sometimes soothing array of seismographic lines and colours.

Run and showcased by Leamington Studio Artists (LSA), Gallery150 is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11.00am to 6.00pm and Sunday from 11.00am to 4.00pm.  

The private view will be held on Friday 22nd July from 7pm.

Address:

Gallery150, Regent Court Shopping Parade, 9 Livery Street, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4NP. http://www.gallery150.co.uk