Realistic Romney Marsh Views in an Abstract style by Margaret Rushford at Georges House Gallery in Folkestone
Taking form in the entire Strange Cargo gallery is Margaret Rushford’s exciting new exhibition ‘Change of Direction’. Her exhibition is full of new works, paintings, drawings and sculptures made out of ceramics and wire. A real inspiration from her exhibition is that she can confidently use many forms of media in a multitude of ways. Her statement about her exhibition clearly defines my point as she states she is ‘excited about new techniques that come to play in this exhibition’. Near the opening of the gallery we are greeted by an attractive selection of racun glaze horse head pieces clearly demonstrating Margaret’s fondness of animals, the selection is accompanied by some white glazed heads too, with a more crackled effect; the juxtaposition of the colouring evidently shows the markings and straight cut carvings on the head. The most emotive piece in the gallery, was a piece called ‘Louise’ which was an abstract expressionism piece full of vivid colour, the splatters were to convey chaos and confusion as the piece is dedicated to how Margaret felt when her friend Louise had an accident from falling down a staircase, this piece is to obviously identify how troubled Margaret felt from this accident.
Other artworks that caught my attention were pieces such as full horse paintings, in which she used thick varnish to create glossy elements. This clearly showed the body movement of the horse as it highlighted the parts of the back legs especially. The painting was presented on brown paper implying a slightly worn affect. Her work on Venice, on oil paper once more had some beautiful colouring and really captured Venice in a dramatic way. With the interesting low angle from the Sea, however it did make me question if the painting was from a photograph, postcard or memory. Her sketchy style also proves work doesn’t have to be elaborately detailed to make a striking piece. Further on from this work there was a range of wire sculptures of a range of animals such as boars and horses. There was a lot of spectacular shaping with wire, showing how confident she must be in this line of work; all pieces had the real structure of the animal she had replicated. Next to this work was an African Shield design with extreme detail on the screen plate, each pattern was exactly identical and in a consistent trend. I was surprised to see this piece, as it is very different to the majority of her work which is a vibrant, sketch style with masses of colours. This shows how well she has been able to work with all mediums. The sunsets over Romney piece in addition accompanied her other abstract pieces as it clearly demonstrated expressionism, as the image has been painted in a distorted approach to evoke emotion.
Afterwards we had a discussion with the artist herself, she told us about her plans to use her interest on the animals and her paintings of them to make illustrations for a children’s book of hers that she is hoping to publish. Margaret was very enthusiastic about the book and told us some names of the starring characters and how she had always been focused on animals in her art career.
It is obvious from the exhibition Margaret devotes her life to art, especially since she has used several media forms to create her exhibition, taking a long time to perfect each piece. Her exhibition does not have a consistent flow however each piece is so different making it more than interesting to view.
Other artworks that caught my attention were pieces such as full horse paintings, in which she used thick varnish to create glossy elements. This clearly showed the body movement of the horse as it highlighted the parts of the back legs especially. The painting was presented on brown paper implying a slightly worn affect. Her work on Venice, on oil paper once more had some beautiful colouring and really captured Venice in a dramatic way. With the interesting low angle from the Sea, however it did make me question if the painting was from a photograph, postcard or memory. Her sketchy style also proves work doesn’t have to be elaborately detailed to make a striking piece. Further on from this work there was a range of wire sculptures of a range of animals such as boars and horses. There was a lot of spectacular shaping with wire, showing how confident she must be in this line of work; all pieces had the real structure of the animal she had replicated. Next to this work was an African Shield design with extreme detail on the screen plate, each pattern was exactly identical and in a consistent trend. I was surprised to see this piece, as it is very different to the majority of her work which is a vibrant, sketch style with masses of colours. This shows how well she has been able to work with all mediums. The sunsets over Romney piece in addition accompanied her other abstract pieces as it clearly demonstrated expressionism, as the image has been painted in a distorted approach to evoke emotion.
Afterwards we had a discussion with the artist herself, she told us about her plans to use her interest on the animals and her paintings of them to make illustrations for a children’s book of hers that she is hoping to publish. Margaret was very enthusiastic about the book and told us some names of the starring characters and how she had always been focused on animals in her art career.
It is obvious from the exhibition Margaret devotes her life to art, especially since she has used several media forms to create her exhibition, taking a long time to perfect each piece. Her exhibition does not have a consistent flow however each piece is so different making it more than interesting to view.
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