A Brighton artist has won a place at two prestigious art exhibitions next month.
Faye Bridgwater, who is well known locally for running the popular Brighton Skies Facebook group, was selected from over 1,000 entries to be included in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours’ 208th exhibition. Her painting 140 Monochrome Studies of Sussex will be on display at Mall Galleries from 2 to 17 April.
And then later that month, another painting called Studying Murmurations which is one of 80 selected for the Derwent Prize will be exhibited at Gallery@OXO in central London from 22 to to 3 May before being taken to Paris to be shown at 20 rue Saint Claude from 12 to 16 May.
Faye has taken part in the Brighton Festival’s Artists Open Houses for the last three years and will be hosting one herself as well as holding her first solo show later this year.
She said: “140 Monochrome Studies of Sussex is an emotional and expressive response to the Sussex landscape and coastline.
“These are little snapshots of a journey, observing the ever-changing weather over the horizon, and hearing the sounds of the seagulls and the pebbles tumbling in the waves.
“This contemporary landscape brings together different vistas, with tall, white, bold cliffs, and the graceful, elegant rolling hills of the South Downs; together inspiring these joyful abstract, miniature compositions.”
The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 208th show is the largest exhibition of its kind in the world, showcasing over 400 of the very best in contemporary water-based media paintings from its members and selected artists from around the globe.
Clare O’Brien, CEO of the Federation of British Artists at Mall Galleries, said: “The variety is astonishing, from photo-realism through impressionism to abstraction, the paint applied with a light and delicate touch or a thick and heavy impasto application that one doesn’t expect from watercolour.
“Subjects range from the landscapes of gently rolling hills one expects to see depicted by watercolourists, through architecture and city scenes, still life works, abstract celebrations of colour, to meditations on the climate crisis. This exhibition is an annual survey of how contemporary artists are using this age-old medium and a great place to pick up vibrant, original works with prices starting from £350.”
The exhibition will be open from 10am to 5pm every day except Easter Sunday on 12 April. Admission is £5, free to Friends of Mall Galleries and under-25s.
Readers of Brighton and Hove News can get free for two by mentioning us at the gallery desk.
Faye’s Artists Open House in Dawson Terrace, part of the Kemptown trail, will be open from 11 to 5pm over the first four weekends in May, with her work exploring Whitehawk Hill’s neolithic past.
