NATURE : LINE : COLOUR at the ARB...
Open Weekdays until 13 Spetmeber
NATURE : LINE : COLOUR
Louise Stebbing / Jane Ashdown / Bette Spektorov
Exhibition of paintings, etchings and linocuts
Louise has coordinated this exhibition of creative intensity linking three respected female artists. Having met Bette and Jane when she owned an art gallery in north Cambridgeshire and keeping in touch despite moving to Norfolk and Jane moving around to finally settle in Cornwall, Bette living in Lincolnshire.
Explosions of rich colour, expressive marks, delicate lines and sensitive depictions of nature all can be appreciated in this joyful exhibition. A unique opportunity to view each artists work with their own seductive style which together makes a stunning show.
Louise Stebbing
Louise Stebbing who lives and works in Norfolk has been printmaking for several years and has won several prizes for her work.
Her work often depicts local landscapes or places she has visited. Louise studied at Cambridge, Sheffield and Camberwell School of Art.
She has exhibited extensively throughout the UK including The Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy, London, Work selected for the V&A Archives; Affordable Art Fair Hampstead & Battersea; Mall Galleries, London; Bankside Gallery, London
Louise has been a pod contestant on Sky Landscape Artist of the Year in 2016 & 2024.
Bette Spektorov
Bette is a painter and art historian. She has enjoyed painting since a child but was discouraged from attending art school. Instead she studied History at Oxford University and History of Art at the Courtauld Institute (where she attended Anthony Blunt’s important seminars on seventeenth century art).
In the late 1960’s she spent two years in New York completing an MA in Fine Art. Also meeting leading American artists and writers.
Returning she taught History of Art at Middlesex Polytechnic, continuing to paint throughout.
“As a painter, I am attracted to visual intensity in terms of charged colour and bold pattern. Flowers and textiles are important sources of inspiration to me. My work is often described as ‘decorative’.”
Jane Ashdown
Jane is a printmaker living on the North Cornwall coast where she works in her own studio and at the Porthmeor Print Workshop in St.Ives. She studied Fine Art (sculpture and print) at the Ruskin, Oxford, and did an MA in Sequential Design at Brighton. She has combined the pursuit of her own practice with teaching and residencies.
Jane has exhibited around the UK, in France and China and has work in public or private collections in all three countries, Australia and Holland.
She works mainly in drawing and etching and has an interest in handmade books and scrolls.
Jane generally starts by drawing, taking inspiration from wild landscapes, edges and horizons, as well as from more intimate connections with nature around the home and garden, and from objects found in these landscapes. Each etching evolves gradually through the process of making and will go through many stages and proofs until she resolves the print. The rhythm of wiping the plate, the mark-making and the quality of the papers and inks are all important elements, as are the titles to suggest a human connection or narrative. All works are hand printed and editions may contain slight variations in colour.