Coast

4th July - 17th August 2019
COAST
Brita Granström | Maggi Hambling CBE | Norman Ackroyd RA | Katie Henery
Kurt Jackson | Tamsyn Trevorrow | Paul Henery | Mick Manning
Malory Maki | Paul Gallagher | James Williamson Bell | Helen Fay

Britain has some of the most fascinating and varied coastlines in the world. This island nation in the North Atlantic has been shaped by the sea in many ways. Maritime industries such as fishing, shipbuilding, and of course the Navy, have been the pride of Britain for centuries in a culture that has come to be defined by the sea. For centuries, artists have been depicting these ever-changing coastlines in all their glory, from the tempestuous masterpieces of J.M.W. Turner to the abstracted stylings of Terry Frost.

 In their Summer exhibition ‘Coast’, Gallagher & Turner are presenting a varied selection of paintings and prints that capture and celebrate the best of our shores, with beaches and seascapes by great British artists, focusing in particular on Northumberland and our local North East coast. Northumberland-based Swedish artist Brita Granström’s joyously expressive paintings bring in a brightness suffused with metaphor, harking back to childhood fantasies of the sea, whilst local painter Malory Maki takes a more abstract approach, pulling out the rich colours, reflective surfaces and sweeping forms of the landscape.

Father and daughter artist pair Paul and Katie Henery are both inspired by Northumberland’s coastal fauna, with puffins, terns, dolphins and otters making regular appearances in their works, with Katie frequently working onto old maps of the area along the North Sea. From the other end of the country, Cornish artist Tamsyn Trevorrow’s ceramic works recall the interaction between land and sea, her pieces seemingly formed by the gnarl and froth of the waves across the mineral-rich St. Ives coastline.  

Like the Henerys, renowned painter Kurt Jackson’s works reflect a concern with natural history, ecology and environmental issues. His paintings often carry a commentary on the scene, and a fascination with the plants and animals within it, as well as within a wider ecological framework. Paul Gallagher mixes sand and earth from the locations of his ethereal landscape paintings into his paint, forming unique surfaces that capture a visceral sense of nature, whilst Mick Manning’s stippled pochoir works feature varying themes represented by animal forms such as crabs, auks and falcons.

The exhibition also features marvellously atmospheric etchings by renowned printmaker Norman Ackroyd, a painting by the legendary Maggi Hambling, and beautiful watercolours by Helen Fay.

Images © the artists

All works are available for sale