Preview invite for East Coast Artists Exhibition

East Coast Artists - my next exhibition

The East Coast Artists Exhibition is part of the Back o’ the shop Gallery’s new exhibition programme of thematic curated group shows. The exhibition begins on Saturday 2^nd June and continues until Saturday 25^th August.

Eleven artists for this exhibition have just been selected and announced, these artists include myself (Leanne Broadbent), Jane Worthington, Judith Ellis, Rob Shaw, Michael Atkin, Sue Spivey, Lynne Porter, Patrick Doolin, Gemma Watson, Wendy Tate, and Poul Rennolf.

I am really looking forward to this exhibition as it is set to be a diverse one with all artists working in two-dimensions, hand selected from the East Coast of Yorkshire. I am sure it will appeal to many people so why not come and view!  

Preview of New Work!

The Emerald City| Leanne Broadbent | Mixed Media on Canvas: 2012

Here is a little look at one of my latest images ready for my next exhibition. I hope you like it!

Progress of my New Picture

Here are some images showing my progression of one of my latest pictures titled ‘The Beanstalk’, inspired by the children’s tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

The Complexities of Producing a Work of Art!

A sudden rush of excitement spurs me on as my initial inspiration strikes. However, as I begin to work on building upon layers and layers uncertainty sets in as the brilliant vision I have formulated looks increasingly as though a very small child has created it!

And so it begins…

The emotional turmoil, the doubt, the roller coaster of highs and lows, the observations, the contemplation and the questioning, will I be able to pull this picture off or not? Although, the most complex question of all is… I know the picture is almost finished but if I add too much it will ruin it and if I don’t add something it is incomplete, so what should I do? This can lead to hours and sometimes months of staring at the canvas!

I realise stating all these things makes me sound like an insane person but I have a sneaky suspicion that if the truth was known a lot of artists would own up to it!

Throughout all of this there is always a wonderful leap of faith where I just trust my instincts and make a decision, I mean what does it matter it is only a canvas! Wrong - it is art but that is for another day!

More new art work to follow soon!

My Visit to David Hockney's 'A Bigger Picture'

The icon David Hockney, (Born 9^th July 1937) is the world’s most famous living artist by far and still embracing change and technologies within his work, and the latest exhibition ‘A bigger Picture’ at the Royal Academy London is no exception.

The subject matter may have changed over the years but the exhibition with the addition of some older key art works allows us to see his evolution. The photographic collage of Pearblossom Highway (1986) seems to be the beginning of his exploration into viewing a subject from different angles and has progressed into the spell binding visual journey through the Wolds captured in 18 different angles.

The iPad drawings were of key interest to me as I feel it acts as another conformation of his investigation into newer technologies using them to a new advantage in relation to his art. The iPad drawings also act as a significant affirmation to drawing as a legitimate art form (as I still feel as though it is disparaged even after the efforts of successful artists and competitions such as the Jerwood Drawing Prize). Their immensity within this exhibition is an encouragement to emerging artists (like myself) to continue to produce contemporary drawings and fight for their prominent place within the arts.

Of course the title to the exhibition makes us as a viewer reflect on the exhibition as a whole image celebrating David Hockney as the first artist to have been allowed so much space to fill in the Royal Academy. Indeed the title makes us contemplate ‘the bigger picture’ of the outside world and think of many other things such as going beyond the art into the beauty of the landscape which is still here despite the gloom of national politics!

The landscape of East Yorkshire is the place where I have grown and still remain; I recognised the places where these art works were created and this gave me pride to have someone like David Hockney recognise the beauty that I already knew is there.

For me David Hockney is one of the exceptions to the rule as after all these years he has still proven that you can be innovative and push your artistic practice, this exhibition is testament to this and well worth viewing before it closes!

Arthur Rackham

A dear and most constant companion from my childhood and influence of my artist style is Arthur Rackham, (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) an English illustrator who is responsible for some of the most iconic children’s book illustrations such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the Brothers Grimm Fairy tales.

At this the whole pack rose in the air, and came flying down upon her | Arthur Rackham | 1907 | from Alice in Wonderland

The dark tone of his often grotesque work coupled with the emotions, charm and realism illustrates many of lives truths that morals of fairy tales often do convey. When viewing the illustrations as an adult I find them much more sinister than I did as a child and that is what I wish to portray when producing my own art work.

The characters seem all too real even as mythical symbols they still leap from the page and into our minds becoming real life imitations of unscrupulous people we meet in the world.

Whist reading about Rackham I recently came across a humours fact that his nephew Walter Starkie is reported to have described his uncle by commenting:

“His face was wizened and wrinkled like a ripe walnut, and as he peered short sightedly at me out of his goggle spectacles I thought he was one of the goblins out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”1

I feel this statement is very quaint as I imagine this man who has fired millions of children’s imaginations working away and slowly beginning to imitate his lifelong work or was it the other way around! Either way Arthur Rackham is still celebrated today for his amazing work still poignant and still very relevant to me.

1 Walter Starkie to Derek Hudson, c.1959, quoted Hudson, P. 50