LOVE and KISSES at Carey Blyth Gallery : 14 February – 1 March 2020

Antonia Bruce Milagritos Hearts

Rose Artbuthnott Portraits

Nicholas Arbuthnott Sculpture

An exhibition of work by British artists of drawings, paintings, sculpture and photography.

Antonia Bruce has created cyanotypes of milagritos (small brass folk charms) that are purchased in Catholic churches across Mexico in exchange for prayers for love, relationships and more… Shaping the milagritos across the page into hearts, the offerings are developed onto paper that is brushed with iron compound and developed under a Mexican Sun to create the white on blue silhouettes of individual prayers.

Antonia BRUCE initiated a collaborative exchange between British and Mexican artists over five years, responding to the culture of Oaxaca around staple foods such as corn, cactus, honey etc… She has also curated a wonderful exhibition of ex-votos or devotional paintings that was shown at Wellcome Trust in London. Her Milagritos Hearts follow on from the devotional theme.

Rose ARBUTHNOTT |”One morning in Mexico, I began the inordinately simple task of drawing faces “

Rose was one of the artists in residency in Part One of the First Foods Project. She has created a beautiful body of portraits in charcoal on paper and oil on board. Her simple line drawings are powerfully emotive catching the pathos in a look, a kiss, a gesture between two lovers.

Rose studied Fine Art and History of Art at Edinburgh University, set up the Owl Barn artist residency in Gloucestershire and was artist in residence as part of the first foods project in Mexico 2014.

"What I really want to talk about is the difficulty of making art in the ominous current situation of global climate change, and the consumer culture and capitalism that seems to be driving it. In this context I am making art to support my living. Almost all of us are doing something like this – consuming the world’s resources to keep our puny lives afloat, even if for me this is only wood and oil paint (I am anti-plastics and don’t use acrylic; although we need all the trees we can keep deeply anchored in the ground just where they are, wood is at least a renewable resource). And at least paintings are for life and not discardable objects

Nicholas Arbuthnott is showing heads sculpted in stone. His muses embrace the classical with lines that recall the elongated melancholy of Modigliani and conversely Picasso-esque reference to tribal art and cubism expressed in sculpture and paintings such as Les Demoiselles D’Avignon.

Jenny Blyth, Curator