‘Liminal Spaces’ is a pop-up exhibition featuring the work of 4 artists; Allistair Covell, Faye Munroe, both current Digswell Arts fellows and Karen Picton and Tina Reid, both Digswell Arts alumni. Whilst each artist’s creative practice is diverse and different in concept and application, they all share a familiar inquisitive and enquiring approach to creating artwork. The work they create, as shown and evident in the exhibition, is based within the visual interpretation of an idea or theme, resulting in the artworks being ‘about’ something, not just ‘of’ something. Each artist has recognised over time that the process of creating their own work is sometimes more important than the finished piece; whether this is a painting, sculpture or a sketch.

The exhibition ‘Liminal Spaces’ is to be viewed within the context of an in-between space… a threshold. It is a space for transformations and transitions; a place to think and learn; a space to experiment with ideas and possibilities.

Allistair Covell is an artist whose creative practice is an exploration of colour and pattern on a surface. His highly abstract paintings are recordings and responses to his own experiences with synesthesia. He sees a strong relationship between colour and the senses, in particular sound, which enables him to “hear colour”. Different sounds stimulate different colours or shapes, so whether it is music playing or someone talking, sound for him is an ever-changing colourful visual / audio landscape.

Faye Munroe is a ceramic artist who creates emphatic ceramic structures in clay, primary working with stoneware. Faye’s ceramic work displays subtle influences from her cultural heritage, ranging from specific colours to shapes and features found within architecture. Faye’s symbolic forms also display elements of her own family history, echoing traces of diaspora, and an appreciation for a primitive and raw-refined aesthetic.

Karen Picton creates mindscapes with earth and mud taken from the ground and applied to a surface like paint. This creates a visual interaction between materials, ideas and spaces. Although her work is rooted in painting, sometimes an idea for Karen is best expressed through the experience of an installation. Physically painting with the land creates an interesting dialogue and is essentially a visualisation of thought itself, as the outcome is a transition from the land through the mind to the audience.

Tina Reid is a fine artist whose artworks are centered on tracing the human form. Her work captures the space a body inhabits as well as exploring the interior and meditative space of the subject. Themes such as thought, time and motion feature strongly in her practice; immortalised though her strong use of line and expressive mark making. The act of repetition is a strong theme that runs through Tina’s practice, with the physical process of creating work sometimes more important than the finished piece. Tina has over time created her own set of rules which may appear to limit her physical actions when drawing, but this has enabled her to develop a stronger refined visual vocabulary.

‘Liminal Spaces’ runs from the Saturday 12th to Monday 14th May 2018 at the Fenners Gallery, open 11am to 4pm. The private view is Friday 11th May 7pm to 9pm. The Fenners Gallery, 7 Openshaw Way, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, SG6 3EN