12 Apr New “Ore” Collection to be showcased at AAF Hampstead 2025
Hampstead AAF with George Thornton Art happening at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead Heath, London, NW3 1TH May 07th-11th.
Really excited to be exhibiting a new collection at the Affordable Art Fair in London with the amazing George Thornton Gallery who are based in Nottingham. This will be my 11th appearance at this event and it is always a pleasure to take part as an artist as it was so integral to my experience of being at and doing art fairs. This year however, we are going for something slightly different in the approach and we plan to show some of these new “Ore” pieces as well.
Essentially, I am making work which is intrinsically in touch with the land, this is in respects to the way I work and how I work and how I visualise the landscape. The material offering within the painting has to be linked to the landscape or trade within the landscape as much as possible, I use coffee as there is a long history of coffee being imported into the British Isles as far back as the Elizabethan times, I work with steel as it signifies industry and the fire forging of items made for trade, Iron which is gouged the land and mixed with carbon to produce a steel sheet, for these latest works, I have baked the steel over a year within the clay earth to utilise some of the natural salts and minerals you associate with the south coast to slowly indent parts of the steel to show that age. The earth can be as impersonal and unforgiving on materials as much as the human touch can be. The layers of colour which dominates is oil based and has been mixed to signify the calmness of the coast, this is in complete contrast to the work I have become known for. This work was not meant to become a commercial offering as such, they were just pieces that came from the heart of an artist, pieces of artwork and material gestures that make sense to me. There is less of a controlled impact on the texture within these works than what you see on the work I would say produce commercially, this is something that takes time to become comfortable with.
So, it would be lovely to see you at the event, please do come along and visit us at Hampstead this year.
Sam
