I have been creating collages for many years now, and this is my third exhibition in the wonderful Gardens Gallery. I continue to use essentially traditional cut and paste methods, relying primarily on photographs, sharp blades, and glue. Each collage is unique. Influences are many and various, including Hannah Hoch, the early Surrealists, Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Peter Blake and more recently John Stezaker.

This exhibition is the result of two artists, Jane Brighton and Shaun Hughes coming together to share their fascination for trees in their art work. Ranging from the figurative to the abstract, the work shows a lifelong engagement with this subject.
Jane Brighton is an artist based in the South West. She exhibits widely nationally and in London Her work is mainly large abstract paintings in oils and expresses her emotional response to nature. In this exhibition she shows her fascination in trees and their abstract qualities of shapes, texture and pattern. As in all her oil paintings, her delight in the medium is obvious. She has always loved and painted trees, including the forty-one paintings of an ash tree over three years. The NHS has bought a large painting of the trees in Montpelier Gardens that is now in the X-ray dept of A&E.
Shaun is an artist based in the West Midlands whose paintings have been in numerous exhibitions nationally. His work is predominantly abstract and is informed by the beauty of nature. His art is his response to the natural environment emphasising the visual and emotional dynamics. In this exhibition Shaun presents work inspired by trees. He shows a fascination for their shapes, textures and complexity. The paintings range from figurative studies in watercolour to semi abstract responses to colour, tone, texture and pattern so beautifully found in trees.

Private View – 15 December, 6.30 – 8pm