CONFLUENCE
May 8 th – 14 th
Elizabeth Hand & Sian Perry-Smith

Open daily 10.00am to 5.00pm
(last Tuesday closing 1.00pm)

PV: Friday 11 th May 5.30-8.00pm (All welcome)

Elizabeth Hand and Sian Perry-Smith work together from a studio in the beautiful Cathedral City of Wells in Somerset. This exhibition brings together work created over one year. The two abstract painters shared the theme of rivers, undertaking walks and journeys in Pembrokeshire (Sian) and India (Elizabeth), exploring diverse cultural, historical, and visual stimuli.

Sian’s works are predominately oil on canvas. On occasion she incorporates an object or another material into her work and finds layers and texture or the lack of, exciting. Her approach is intuitive and her objective to interpret a memory, whether a location, an event or a moment in time. This collection of work focusses on Fishguard in West Wales and the happy times spent with her sister. Sian studied through the University of Plymouth and was highly commended by the Royal Society of Arts. She has exhibited widely and welcomes commissions.

Elizabeth is known as a painter of distant places; her large abstract paintings are inspired by travel. The work exhibited at Spring, recreates memories of alighting from a boat to mount steep steps rising from the River Ganges to Ghats and settlements above. Temple interiors, ancient labyrinth passages and the cacophony of life, offered rich pattern, colour and texture.

Elizabeth trained at Dartington Hall, WSCAD and the University of Reading. At Dartington she collaborated with dancers and musicians and was awarded an Elm Award for further study. As an educationalist she ran departments at several prestigious centres, winning awards for excellence. She pioneered student study trips to St Ives and, at the King’s School Worcester, established the Sir Terry Frost Gallery. She ran ‘Arts Alive’ and ‘Words Alive’ festivals for many years, commissioning work and bringing together amateurs and professionals in collaborative creative workshops, exhibitions, and performances. She has now returned to her own practice. She exhibits regularly, runs workshops and is Principal Examiner for Pre-U Art and Design.

www.heritagecourtyardstudio.com (Elizabeth Hand associate artist)