The first of Thames Art Gallery featured artist for April is Kay De Blaauw.
Kay is a mixed media artist known for a modern eclectic style, incorporating the use of bold colour, texture and free-flowing form.
Kay’s journey as an artist began in her childhood, where she grew up in a family that valued art and freedom of expression, and she often had a paintbrush in her hand. In adulthood, she has continued experimenting, both with textiles and paint.
Her formal training started with watercolour and life classes, progressing to modern art and abstract courses. Lately she has been experimenting with layering and mixed media.
Kay is well-travelled and has seen many famous works of art, including works by her favourite artists Klimt, Van Gogh, Gaughuin, Cezzane, to name just a few. She has used this experience to further inspire and influence her work. Impression and abstract are her favourite styles of painting, incorporating colour and texture. To get texture, Kay often paints over old paintings, adding lots of colour along the way.
She also enjoys the freedom of using a cold wax method which gives a thick texture. From her experience in Japan, Kay uses collagraphs which is another way of obtaining texture from collage.
The gallery’s other featured artist for April is Kathryn Russell, a jewellery maker.
Kathryn began her passion for this art by attending a beading night school class. After one class, she felt very excited to learn more, which she did by attending more classes, reading and experimenting.
While she loved all the beautiful glass beads, Kathryn wanted to do something a bit different. That’s when she found and fell in love with semi-precious gemstones. She finds the range of stones, colours, sizes and shapes is endless. Choosing which ones to buy and import was challenging due to the range available. Her main inspiration comes from the stones themselves.
Kathryn’s goal was to produce a high end product. As a sufferer of allergies to metal, she discovered that nickel tended to be the culprit found in many cheaper items, so she aimed to use nickel-free silver over brass. She was excited to find a toggle clasp, which as we get older is a godsend, as parrot clasps become more and more difficult for older fingers.
In the past, Kathryn built up a small business selling into retail outlets which she enjoyed doing but she now produces jewellery more as a hobby.
As well as using semi-precious gemstones she makes an array of freshwater pearl jewellery, which are both beautiful, timeless and very affordable.
For this exhibition, Kathryn will be displaying semi precious gemstone jewellery.
This is not fashion jewellery that gets worn for one season then thrown into the back of the drawer but rather pieces to be worn forever.
DETAILS: Thames Art Gallery, 604 Tararu Rd, open Monday to Friday 10am to 2pm, and weekends 10am to 4pm.
