Exhibition
Aarwn Brown
Art by Aarwn
"I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I keep lots of sketchbooks and I mostly work in pencils and watercolours. When we first went into lockdown back in March I turned to art as I struggled to adjust to the new routine during those anxious few weeks. I created a series of still life paintings and interior scenes from around my home. I’ve always been fascinated by the quotidian drama that can be found in ubiquitous andoverlooked objects and scenes so lockdown has given me the perfect excuse to explore these themes in my art.
I’ve also been visiting the pebble beaches at Penarth and taking walks around Tredelerch Lake with my housemate Cindy where we draw in the sand and create mosaics with pebbles or other found materials. We find these meditative and a great way to participate in the landscape without leaving a permanent footprint. I think this has helped us to feel connected to the great big web of the world outside at a time when things which were once close now seem impossibly far away.”
You can see more of Aarwn's art @aarwnbrown on Instagram.
Pip Irving
Art by Pip
"I have been for the last 12 years a life model and always been the subject of art but since my autism diagnosis last year I have branched out into producing work myself rather than hiding behind someone else's impression of me.
These photographs were all taken during lockdown. Isolating in Cardiff city I sought out nature. Without routine I threw myself into any DIY projects I could find, the more physical the better."
Thank you Pip for sharing your art and story with us.
Robin Berwaerts
Art by Robin
15 year old Robin Berwaerts who rediscovered her passion for creativity in the midst of recovery from a dark period.
Robin has provided here some of the the fantastic graphics she is working on currently. She has offered to share her work and story with you all as a visual that represents hope for others.
The inspiration for these images came from artwork on skateboards owned by her brother and his friends. She spends a lot of time upcycling old boards to repaint with her own designs. Although she does portraits and other art styles, this project has fueled her imagination for the time being.
Thank you Robin for sharing your beautiful work with us.
Ludovic Foster
Pont Melin-fach
Over the past 18 months I have created paintings and drawings that aim to convey the pleasure and value in the parallel connections that I feel when swimming alongside others in the structured environment of the municipal pool, and while moving on land alongside rivers, waterfalls and observing sea within varied coastal habitats.
My new art work has been created at a time of social lockdown where I have not been able to physically access a swimming pool, the river or the sea so I have had to try to recall the way that being near, or in water makes me feel. I particularly focused on my experiences of the waterfalls and cascades found through the South Wales Valleys. in the I think of these works as a visual manifestation of sensation, as sensory memory paintings.
In these paintings and drawings I combine the fluidity and vibrancy of the mediums of watercolour paint, with the starch immediacy of graphite, pencil, ink and pastel, which allows the freedom for both energetic mark making, and controlled physical movement. On closer inspection the surface of the paper bares the traces of constant reworking and rediscovery, a visual embodiment of physical energy.
The variety of marks suggests the tension between restraint, disruption and impermanence.
The art that I make has arisen from an intense need for, and an appreciation of the richly sensuous fleeting impressions of such moments of coexistence, worlds of constant motion, and togetherness without the need for verbal communication.
I am autistic which means that I often struggle to process everyday sensory information, and my senses can be either over or under stimulated. This makes daily life overwhelming, but also allows me to perceive the smaller details in the world around me with a heightened degree of clarity and awe.
As well as a feeling of exhilaration these works were born of a respect of our reliance on nature, and our vulnerability as a small part of the natural world.
“Held by water, glimpsing fleetingly, the elegance of bodies of all kinds reborn in chlorinated liquid, gliding, twisting flittingly, seamless between the differing layers of refracted light. Head plunged beneath the surface, goggle clad eyes, the heady rush of salt water, rock, algae and small pebbles.“
