Constellation
DECEMBER 2018
Rob Hudson
Born in the Rhymney Valley in 1968, conceptual landscape photographer and photography writer Rob Hudson now lives in Cardiff. He has developed a vision for landscape photography that embraces ecological concerns and seeks to develop our appreciation of our land through sharing the stories we tell each other of the experiences of the land. Immersing himself in his local surroundings enables him to both develop new ways of expressing these experiences and to critique the way landscape has hitherto been portrayed. His work is often influenced by poetry, which allows him to explore ideas about metaphor and narrative in his photography. In 2014 he was the first to realise the significance of the photographs made by the poet Edward Thomas during his 1913 journey from London to Somerset that became Thomas’s prose work In Pursuit of Spring. Little Toller Books subsequently republished an edition of the book including those photographs. He is a co-founder of the landscape photography collective the Inside the Outside group whose stated aim is to ‘mediate the liminal space between the words before and within us’. He has exhibited across the UK and he has written extensively for a wide range of books and magazines.
These drawings explore elements of life; animals are grown, they are born, they live, fly, fight and wander our earth. Some are fragile, some are strong. Parts decay and eventually die over time; this is the cyclical nature of life. The drawings began observationally of nature, seeing the animal as ‘Other’, an escapism from human existence. Throughout the process the images came back to me with new meaning. They became metaphors for parts of my life; experiencing conflict, being alone, insomnia, being a mother, an observer of beauty and brutality. This has now become an ongoing project that combines my absolute admiration for all things natural and figurative with human behaviour and experience. Abigail graduated with a first degree from University Of Wales Institute, Cardiff in 2004 and almost immediately moved to Bristol, where she has been a member of Jamaica Street Artists’ studios in Stokes croft for 13 years. In that time, she has continuously exhibited all over the uk and divides her time between producing work in her studio and leading art workshops for the young and old. She is currently Visiting Artist at Bristol Children’s Hospital, Runs workshops at the RWA and various care facilities across the city.
Trained at Chelsea College of Art, Katherine worked internationally as a lingerie designer before transitioning to a career in visual art. Her early profession creating the most intimate of garments for women, fostered a deep curiosity about what is concealed and revealed, consciously or otherwise, of the body and the self. Expressive and instinctive, her drawings render the tidal changes of composure and tempest which form the human experience.
Daniel Williams
Based in his studio, 'Seventeen Traitors' Lane', a jettied Tudor house at the heart of Abergavenny, South Wales. Daniel celebrates the richness and intensity of colour through overlaying, combining and imposing colours on one another. These paintings mark a complete departure from his figurative and botanical work towards abstraction. Ambiguous textual marks often feature, essentially as graphic substance, while creating cognitive interplay. The use of negative space creates either balance or imbalance within the picture field. Through the action of painting and mark-making an image gradually evolves. With no conscious intent to record the reference material for his work, Daniel may allude to forms as a result oflooking, sometimes drawing from architecture or printed ephemera amongst other visual stimuli. Ultimately the subject is the paint and media. Beyond this is a combination of recall and reference to physical objects. Daniel has shown at The National Botanic Gardens of Wales, The Royal Horticultural Society, London as well as private galleries, and has work in collections in the UK, US and Malaysia. Following an expedition to Sabah, Borneo in 2004, Daniel became the first person to paint the rare orchid Paphiopedilum ooii, now in the collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew accompanying an earlier drawing of the orchid Vanilla imperialis. Daniel studied at Middlesex University, London and Blackpool and The Fylde College.