Nov 22nd – Dec 5th 2024
“…reflecting on anthropocentric factors, our culpability for environmental
imbalance and our ever-readiness to believe that we are in control.”
Clare Crines is an artist, painter, drawer, jeweller and teacher of botanical illustration. She lives in her hometown of Glasgow. In this exhibition she shows a recent series of paintings (oil on canvas) where she has focused the rose. In a series of square canvasses she explores the delicacy and volumetric properties of this well-known bloom through painterly conventions of shape, colour, light and composition.
A far cry from the constraints of her more traditional botanical illustration pursuits, Crines lets rip with delicate but vibrant colour and explosive painterly composition. Throughout her painting career, Crines has repeatedly returned to the subject of flowers, either as still lifes or as elements in larger works. These paintings captivate the viewer with their balance between harmony of colour and freedom of composition. As an ode to flora and in particular the rose, they convey the strength and perfection of nature in its wild and untamed state.
“Whilst the work may appear raw or even unfinished in parts, this is because I am responding initially to the overall shape and scale of particular aspects of the flora, a bee’s eye view, so to speak.”
Clare
For this exhibition I wanted literally to play with shape and form, colour and composition. A pre-occupation with both understated and flagrant interrelationships of colour has been a constant part of my painting practice. In fact it is also evident within my design work. I like to play with colour either on the canvas or as inherent within raw materials, whether that be complementary or analogous, whilst steadily progressing toward an unexpected outcome. Whereas my teaching career focused on botanical illustration with an approach requiring precision and informational accuracy, my painting practice allows me to move away from these constraints and see similar subject matter in a more abstract light. Whilst the work may appear raw or even unfinished in parts, this is because I am responding initially to the overall shape and scale of particular aspects of the flora, a bee’s eye view, so to speak. I aim to accentuate this aspect and not get too fussy with the detail – a macro-perspective as opposed to a micro-perspective. In a sense, the paintings present a metaphor for our individual daily lives on this planet. Some of the time life seems deceptively simple whilst at others we find it to be more demanding and complex. In the end we need the whole picture.
Angela Eames is a pioneering artist/drawer engaged at the intersection of digital imaging, artificial intelligence and creative practice. She lives in East Sussex. In this exhibition Eames harnesses AI to push the boundaries of drawing, with an innovative survey of botanical specimens to produce both human generated and AI assisted works. Eames finds unusual ways of demystifying, mapping, and subverting technology whilst searching for poetic revelation within the potential successes and failures of digital systems.
Here, eighteen small-scale archival giclée prints, from her MONSTERA DELICIOSA series are hung as pairs of Human-generated flower heads which have been digitally remastered as AI-generated oddities or monstrosities. In calling attention to both negative and positive potential and prospects, these works challenge the developers of digital systems and electronic spaces, questioning both their purpose and their goals, and essentially asking whether we as artists can reclaim these technologies to build our own digital arena.
“I start at the beginning, by planting the seeds or bulbs and follow through. Within my visual practice, aspects of the familiar are extracted and transformed via
Angela
photographic, hand-drawn, and digital means to fabricate outcomes that unsettle in their
refusal to be pigeonholed.”
In this exhibition I reflect on both human and artificial intelligence focusing on the visual representation of flower heads, both as orthodox versions and as more unorthodox, mirrored AI-assisted versions. As both artist and gardener I often employ floral elements within my work, old favourites such as Papaver and Tulipa alongside the less familiar, such as Fritillaria and Gazania. I start at the beginning, by planting the seeds or bulbs and follow through. Within my visual practice, aspects of the familiar are extracted and transformed via photographic, hand-drawn and digital means to fabricate outcomes that unsettle in their refusal to be pigeonholed. As an alternative to my time-based work, these still works present insistent, unique images that provide an opportunity for extended viewing. These editioned archival prints reflect on aspects of human continuity and worth, calling for an acknowledged balance between human initiative and expediency. My recent dabbling in the realm of AI has led to a series bi-partite images that directly parallel human intelligence with artificial intelligence. Initial images of flower heads are worked before preliminary, monochromatic, high resolution, symmetrical versions (or implants) are prepared for AI interpolation. These works reflect on anthropocentric factors, our culpability for environmental imbalance and our ever-readiness to believe that we are in control.
Connect with Angela on Instagram @angela.eames and Clare through her website.
A Rose Is A Rose… runs from Nov 22nd – Dec 5th at Six Foot Gallery.