Devon Open Studios 2014 Bursary winners
Devon Artist Network with Chagford-based Sponsor, Helpful Holidays is delighted to announce the winners of the Devon Open Studios “Emerging Artist Bursary Scheme”.
The Bursary is running for the fourth year and aims to nurture and encourage new talent to take the next steps in their career by helping to fund their participation in this prestigious annual open studios event. We are grateful to our key sponsor, Helpful Holidays, which has grown to become one of the UK’s leading holiday home agencies, for funding this initiative which will support five emerging artists living and working in Devon.
“Once again, we are delighted to be sponsoring the Emerging Artist Bursary Scheme’ said Moray Bowater, Managing Director of Helpful Holidays, “there is so much talent in the Westcountry and it’s wonderful to be able to give these artists a platform to exhibit their work.”
The bursaries are aimed at those entering professional arts practice for the first time, returning to creative practice after a career break or change, or currently taking their art in a new direction.
THG, the official gallery partner for Devon Open Studios, will be curating an insightful exhibition highlighting the work of the bursary winners. The exhibition opens at the launch event for Devon Open Studios on Thursday 4th September (6-8pm) and will run from 6th September -25th October.
“Being based in Devon, it seemed a natural fit for THG to partner with Devon Open Studios and we were thrilled with the range of artists who came forward for these bursaries”, explained Angela Blackwell, the gallery’s curator. “There is such a wealth of new talent in the county and THG is always keen to support and encourage emerging Devon-based artists.”
An award-winning public art gallery based in Honiton, Devon, THG is based in the former home and studio of artist Thelma Hulbert and features a permanent display of her work. The gallery promotes the practice and understanding of contemporary art & craft through an innovative exhibition programme and co-ordinating learning opportunities.
The applicants were all based in Devon and registered for Devon Open Studios 2014. The artists chosen to receive Helpful Holidays’ sponsored bursaries express their creativity through a variety of media.
Greg Newman
Newman lives in Ashburton. Following a Fine Art Foundation course at Chelsea School of Art he studied for his BA Honours in Fine Art in Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. After a career in graphic design Greg is returning to fine art. His practice has encompassed sound installation as well as painting and drawing.
Greg’s latest interest is slow moving, dark, rain filled clouds hovering above land or sea. Where he lives on Dartmoor, rain clouds are common and with the very flat empty land and seascapes, the clouds can look very low. This dramatic, apprehensive, foreboding feeling holds a lot for him as an artist.
Elisa Cunningham
2013 saw Elisa Cunningham graduate from Falmouth University with a First Class Honours Degree in Illustration. Elisa grew up in Devon and was a founding member of the Thelma Hulbert Gallery youth group ‘Masterpieces’ whilst a pupil at Honiton Community College. She now works as a freelance illustrator whilst maintaining her own art practice.
Elisa’s art practice involves both commercial illustration projects and personal work. Rendered using a combination of traditional and digital techniques she is constantly pushing her style and experimenting. Her personal work involves extensive sketching and screen printing. She loves capturing the world around her and screen printing from sketches.
Tessa Jane
An experienced graduate of Textiles & Fashion Tessa Jane trained in constructive textiles for which she has received numerous awards and commissions. A residency at Plymouth College of Art enabled her to extend her knowledge of print and digital printing. Until recently her creative work has been produced in tandem with an extensive teaching career.
As a Fine Art Textile Artist, Tessa loves to explore surface, colour and texture. She is fascinated with pattern, positive and negative space and likes to construct the very surface on which she works. Her work is conceptual and focuses on the moment she catches a glimpse of something fantastic; light on water or filtering through trees or the luminosity of an object.
Janet Sainsbury
Janet Sainsbury is an Exeter based artist. An illustration and design graduate of Brighton University Janet is best known for unique collages. Triggered by new opportunities in 2013 she began to take her practice in a new direction creating a larger studio space in her home, she started printmaking and was awarded a place on Double Elephant’s Contemporary Print Bursary scheme.
Janet’s prints, as with her collages and paintings, are of people she knows or characters from books and films that have touched her. She is more interested in capturing an emotional presence than portraying a physical likeness. She wants to make work that is entertaining and funny, communicating something recognisable about human relationships.
Rory Cunningham
Rory Cunningham graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from Plymouth University in 2001. After a career in community development Rory is now returning to his fine art practise. Runner up in Exeter University's 2014 'Paddon Award' this success inspired him to reassess how much time he devotes to his creative practice.
Rory’s most recent images are created using hand written text. Since re-engaged with his art practice his interest in exploring concepts of personal identity, community and 'belonging' have remained, but he is now equally drawn to more general ideas connected to the power and limitations of the written word - particularly as a method for describing the world around us.
More information on Devon Open Studios can be found at http://www.devonartistnetwork.co.uk/AboutDOS
