NEW CRAFTSMAN | Present & Future | Paintings by Sarah Woods | Sculpture by Anthony Bryant

Our Present, Future exhibition brings together the works of two Cornish artists - Sarah Woods, a painter and Anthony Bryant, a sculptor working in wood.

In this collection Sarah Woods captures a feeling of softness from the ocean and the grounding forms of the landscape, with focus on simplicity of colour and mark making - working with the natural quality of canvas and painting with single directional brush strokes, inspired by the balance and harmony of the coastline.

‘Moving Tides’ brings together a series of large scale paintings and smaller studies from the west coast and St Ives, drawing on the elemental movement between the land and the sea, the light captured in a breaking tide, and a sense of calm in the spaces that are always in motion. Reaching the edges of the land and looking across the curving headland or a sweeping shore, this motion is visible in textural brush strokes, often sweeping across the surface of the canvas and from edge to edge.

There is a tactility to working by hand and the process of each piece is considered and intuitive,
having gathered inspiration from the landscape and returned to the studio to create the collection. Each canvas has been slowly prepared before painting, and small works on paper are created as an intimate collection of studies to inspire the larger works as they form - capturing soft coastal hues of cerulean, sand and alabaster, and becoming familiar with balanced compositions of the land and sea. 

Anthony Bryant is internationally recognised for his unsurpassed work in 'green' woodturning. He creates work which stretches the potential of the material to its furthest limits – both in scale and in his unrivalled ability to turn to an absolutely breathtaking thinness.

‘I am not concerned with function in my work.  Instead, I prefer to explore the sculptural potential of the vessel at the physical limits of woodturning.  My driving aim is to create powerful forms with poise and presence.’  AB