Hallowed GroundSarah Purvey

13 November - 12 December 2015

4 Bartlett Street Bath BA1 2QZ01225 460189www.davidsimoncontemporary.com

Landscape is such a precious part of an artist’s perspective, whether it is the physical landscape of the planet, or indeed the inner landscape of thought and spirit. Both are imbued with meaning and understanding that are integral to the character and personality of the artist, the life path that they have followed and are following, and the perspectives that they project onto their creative outlet, namely their work.

The artist Sarah Purvey is a creative individual who has landscape, in its broadest sense, as part of the focused centre of her work and of her outward and inward personal and working perspective. She understands that creativity has to work on more than just the level of analytical observation; it also has to be felt. In order to be intuitively understood, there has to be an emotional element contained within the work, as well as within the artist.

Sarah is able to use both ideals of landscape in order to produce work that has anchor points of belonging, which the perspective of landscape gives us. She deftly intertwines these seemingly disjointed landscapes into one projection, entwining the subtleties of the external landscape in which she lives and observes, as well as the internal landscape in which she feels and understands. Both are vital to her work and both are used within a perspective of belonging.

Working in clay, the soil of the land in some respects, has given Sarah a raw and immediate connection with her environment. She moves through a creative landscape, feeling her way with sensitive hands towards an understanding of space and time. The artist works with the internal and external voids that her vessels produce. Much of her work she admits is spontaneous and instinctive, she feels and feeds each piece, as each piece feels and feeds her in turn. This highly personalised approach has given Sarah a creative direction that incorporates so much of herself in her work. By feeling her way through the clay, she is able to travel through a process that can be both spontaneous, and highly personal.

With a particularly muted and limited colour palette, the artist is free to explore surface and textural qualities that can often become confused, even subsumed within colour considerations. Sarah’s colour tones speak of the environment, of the combinations of subtlety that is so much a part of the British landscape, through its soft, muted tones within the land, and its large subdued skies, whatever colours there are in the landscape are so often imbued with variations of delicate tonal subtlety.

These are all signs of an artist that is so attuned to the landscape pattern of her physical surroundings, as well as the pattern that makes up her internal landscape, that she has

DAVID SIMONCONTEMPORARY

White Belt38 x 40 x 36cm

Dark Embrace47 x 39 x 30cm

become part of that landscape, so to speak. However, these are not necessarily localised and personalised environments that can be captured as in a photograph; they are landscapes of empathy, and understanding on a level that is much more intrinsic and rooted than through just physical attachment, there is an emotional level to the relationship with environment that should not be underestimated.

John HopperInspirational Magazine, 2015

Grey Matter46 x 41 x 30cm

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Feeling Blue47 x 30 x 21cm

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Hollow Form43 x 45 x 31cm

Flux42 x 43 x 31cm

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Grazed50 x 38 x 23cm

Wavering42 x 42 x 29cm

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Shadowlands48 x 42 x 23cm

Reflection62 x 39 x 23cm

Vestige44 x 40 x 23cm

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Sarah Purvey2009 -MA Ceramics, Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University 1991 -BA Ceramics, Bath College of Higher Education1988 -BTec Ceramics, Plymouth College of Art and Design

Exhibitions2015 David Simon Contemorary Bath Salisbury Arts Centre Cavin-Morris Gallery New York Bath Society of Artists Open, Victoria Art Gallery Wine Street Gallery, Wiltshire Robert Fogell Gallery, Stamford Rize Art Gallery, Amsterdam Flux Exhibition-Gray’s Art Gallery, London2014 Rize Art Gallery, Amsterdam Medici Gallery, Cork Street Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York David Simon Contemporary, Bath Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Medici Gallery, London SWA Mall Gallery London Medici Gallery, Cork Street Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York2013 Panzer Trotman Fine Art Wine Street Gallery Denise Yapp Contemporary Art Gallery HatfieldHouse-ArtInClay Bath Abbey Hospitality The Russell Cotes Museum with The Arthouse Gallery New Craftsman Gallery, St Ives, May2012 Quest Gallery Bath with Ione Parkin RWA Bircham Gallery Norfolk Autumn Show Sara Preisler Gallery Solo Show Gallery 28 Cork Street, Katharine House Gallery Threadneedle Prize Exhibition the Mall Galleries SelectedHatfieldArtInClay Hilton Fine Art Gallery, Bath Devon Guild Bovey Tracey, Members Solo Show Larkhall, Bath with Ione Parkin RWA, May

2011 Pound Pill Arts Centre, Corsham Cartshed Gallery, Shaftesbury Corsham Court Gallery (BSU) SelectedArtinClayHatfieldHouse Black Swan Bowood House2010 Gallery 27 Cork Street, Katharine House Gallery Selected Open Show, The Pound Arts, Corsham Group Show, Calne Arts Festival Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough Bradford On Avon Arts Festival Sculpture Garden Selected Central Gallery Malvern, Bertram Arts Solo Show, Corsham Court Gallery (BSU)2009 Milsom Place, Bath with Mirka Golden-Hann (BSU) MA Degree Show (BSU) Sion Hill Bath

back cover:Trace43 x 41 x 23cm

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4 Bartlett Street Bath BA1 2QZMon - Sat 10am - 6pm (Wed 2pm - 6pm)

01225 460189

www.davidsimoncontemporary.comPhotography by John Taylor

DAVID SIMONCONTEMPORARY