The four local artists in this exhibition first met at Malvern School of Art at Malvern Hills College prior to its closure in 2021.

Each has their own distinctive style and each has taken the theme of ‘The Space Between’ and interpreted it to reflect their own practice.

All work is for sale. Payments for any purchases will be taken via card or through an invoice payable by BACS transfer. Purchases can be collected at the end of the exhibition or delivered by agreement.

Each piece of work on display within 'The Space Between' exhibition is laid out in this e-book. Clicking on the pictures will enlarge the image.

To enquire or to purchase a piece, click on the ENQUIRE button below the item.

Alternatively, email or call Anna Taylor
elmsliehouse@gmail.com
07789 470 780

The exhibition opens on Friday 13th May and is open all weekend until Sunday 15th May, 11.00 – 500pm daily

The exhibition is then shut during the week to allow usual classes to take place.

It re-opens on Friday 20th May and also on Saturday 21st May, also 11.00 – 500pm daily.

On Sunday 22nd May the exhibition will close at 2.00pm to allow another event to run in the hall.

Gemma Griffiths, Maria-Cristina Gardiner, Erin Conel and Mary Brittain, who met at Malvern School of Art at Malvern Hills College (MHC) before its closure in 2021 have come together to stage an exhibition of their work at Elmslie House, Avenue Road, Malvern.

The exhibition which runs over two weekends in May will provide a showcase for over 50 works including paintings, collage, drawings and sculpture. Additionally tea, coffee and cakes will be available throughout the exhibition in Elmslie's bar area.

Each participant has her own distinctive style and this is reflected in the way the exhibition has been hung in individual sections.

The four picked the title ‘The Space Between’ because it has resonance for them all. For Gemma it signifies the area where the land or the sea meets the sky and where the most beautiful light is found. For Mary it reflects her fascination with the negative shapes created when she is painting and drawing and how changing her treatment of these alters her work. For Cristina it is found in the transition from her initial quick sketches to her finished pieces which emerge slowly following the addition of elements of surrealism and abstraction. Whilst for Erin the ‘space between’ in where a landscape becomes not just a physical place, but is symbolic of feelings and experience.

Speaking for the Group, Mary Brittain (who with fellow-exhibitor Gemma Griffiths has been closely involved with the SOS Task Group still working to try and save Malvern Hills College (www.savemalvernhillscollege.org.uk) said: “We all very excited to be exhibiting together and are grateful to Anna Taylor at Elmslie House for this opportunity to showcase our work. We are just a tiny fraction of the many people who have been helped on their artistic voyage by the talented staff who taught at MHC. We hope our exhibition will remind people just how important the college was to the region and more importantly how important it can be again under new management.”

Following a career in journalism, Mary Brittain, who lives in Great Witley, turned her attention more fully to her art.

Her work for this exhibition comprises mainly bold and colourful mixed media pieces with elements of collage.

She will also be exhibiting a small collection of sculpture. Her inspiration is drawn from her immediate surroundings and mixes domestic and garden objects and plants with the occasional living creature.

Acrylic on canvas
£320

Erin Conel is an American-born artist settled in England.

Originally trained in mathematics, she began painting in 2001. After moving to The Malvern Hills in 2014, she became part of the art community surrounding Malvern Hills College while attending classes there with Kim Williams and Brian Gorst.

Her work combines imagery from a variety of sources including family and historical photographs, film, local landscape, art history, and advertisements. This imagery is used to explore associations in digital collages, which are then further developed and transformed through paint.

For Erin, The Space Between is where a landscape becomes not just a physical place, but symbolic of our feelings and experiences.

52x42cm (framed)
Oil on aluminium board
£500