Washington Gallery

Chris Griffin & Martyn Vaughan Jones
An exhibition of recent work
2nd-15th May Upper Gallery

Two friends, and long time favourites of the Washington Gallery, Chris Griffin and Martyn Vaughan Jones are showing recent work. Both artists rely heavily on the variety and mood of the Welsh landscape. Their new work shows a development in texture and colour with some work moving to abstraction. Chris Griffin is also developing ideas based on still life.

Chris Griffin, Red Abstract, 2008

Chris Griffin, White Table, 2007

Martyn Vaughn Jones

Jocelyn Prosser
Déjà vu
2nd-31st May
Lower Gallery

The artist Jocelyn Prosser has always loved collecting from charity shops and house clearances. From these Prosser constructs individual pieces for necklaces, earrings and charm bracelets, each unique, and the imaginative work has gathered admirers in London and Wales, from where she works. This art of selecting the unusual has made a very spectacular range of recycled jewellery and Prosser utilises similar artefacts (and motivations) in her assemblages, with around 30 pieces on display in this new exhibition.

Old-fashioned compounds of silver, gold and plastics, household trinkets and odd everyday items all form groundbreaking designs that fuse vintage and modern. The motivation behind the artist’s work derives from the need to create something beautiful from an unwanted item. Most are created from discarded, broken items and each a marriage of different parts. Prosser says it must harmonise and look as if it has never been anything other than what it is now. She finds it satisfying to recycle, giving the once discarded items a new life, to be cherished again and believing every piece could tell a story.

Jocelyn Prosser lives and works in the Briton Ferry area of Neath, South Wales, though born in Toronto, Canada, and is best known as a painter. Self-taught, she attended classes with the late Bewley Currie, who encouraged her to remain true to her distinctive, original (and extremely infectious) naive style of painting.

Prosser's paintings are beautifully simple and unpretentious, the compositions and use of colour drawing the viewer into a parallel universe, where anything is possible. She works mainly in watercolours.

Jocelyn Prosser, Assemblage N.1

Jocelyn Prosser, Pendants

Jocelyn Prosser, Necklace

Jocelyn Prosser, Brooch

Anna Roebuck
An exhibition of recent work
2nd-31st May
Lower Gallery

Contemporary jewellery individually created using recycled plastic and other found elements. Designs are individually created from recycled bags and other found elements.

The designer’s aim is to create desirable objects. All of the work is made using a technique that has been developed, utilizing plastic carrier bags and their vibrant colours. “I have always been interested in environmental issues, including the concepts of recycling and sustainability, and this is central to my ideas.

The core focus for my work is how the materials can be manipulated and recreated in to new and beautiful forms. Natural elements, such as the sea and rock formations give me visual inspiration which is transposed into form, rhythms or patterns in my designs.”

Her work crosses different boundaries of art, craft and design since the material is so versatile and lends itself to many applications

Anna Roebuck 1

Anna Roebuck 2

Anna Roebuck 3

May Mixed Show
17th -30th May
Upper Gallery

May Mixed show features six artists different for style and technique. Nigel Pugh’s work comes from his personal responses to the natural world and its interaction with the human psyche and social condition. To achieve surreal effects he utilises his background in illustration and photography.

Veronica Gibson is a painter/printmaker based in Brecon whose colourful work predominantly features the landscape of Mid Wales.

Paul Rees' paintings explore theatre world, both on stage and backstage, depicting actors preparing to go on stage, making up in the dressing room, and waiting in the wings to “take their cue”.

Anne Griffiths, an experienced quilt maker, uses paint to develop some of the ideas and qualities found in the stitched surfaces of quilts and fabric samples. Meriel Jane Thomas explores in her paintings the complexity of visual information in contemporary life.

Nigel Pugh, One Seed 1