This solo exhibition is by David Smith CFS Artist Tenant/Studio Holder.
Benham Gallery, Cuckoo Farm Studios
Saturday 30th April – Sunday 8th May
Open every day between 11am - 6pm
After forty two years in Art Education David Smith was looking to return to the day job as a full time artist hoping to work in the UK and Spain. Unfortunately events conspired to get in the way of that idea. The pandemic prevented visits to Spain and even now Brexit limits any stay to three months in the year. However, the lockdowns associated with the pandemic were the biggest obstacles to painting as he did not have a studio and in any case could not leave home. He was only able to work on paper using mainly watercolour and dry media until April 2021 when he was welcomed by Cuckoo Farm Studios and moved into his new studio.
During the internal exiles David decided to revisit his relationship with Art and re-explore all those niggly doubts about Abstraction, Naturalism, Surrealism, Cubism etc etc. and so he allowed himself to make small works about any kind of painting that came into his head whilst catching up, by reading and through Youtube, with artists he both admired and thought he didn’t care for. The only thing he clung to is a deep rooted belief in composition.
By the time David arrived at Cuckoo Farm Studios he was ready to explode onto canvas in a big way, (quite literally in some cases).
The results have been put under the heading of THE LOCKDOWN CHRONICLES.
'Like a range of different people sheltering under one umbrella we can, I hope, see that despite all the variations the works are all of the same species. I have only been at Cuckoo Farm for one year but the people I have met and the Art, (of all kinds), I have seen being made is so inspiring that I know there are new influences abroad and I am very excited about the second half of this year and what the upcoming group shows will reveal. Please do come and visit the show.'
There is no private view as such because David hopes to encourage local people who may have never been to Cuckoo Farm Studios or visited a gallery before and nothing puts people off more than the word PRIVATE.