Artists of the Month: August 2024 – UK Artists
This month we have selected 5 contemporary UK artists for our Artist of the Month of August 2024. From the realistic animal artwork of Sarah Dowson to the modern large abstracts of Linda Karslake. I’m sure you’ll agree, we have chosen some great British artists this month. Art2Arts the first choice gallery to buy art. From a wide selection of artworks by our amazing contemporary artists.
Katia Holmes
Artist Statement: “As a photorealistic pastel artist, I love capturing the tiny details that bring scenes to life. Nothing melts my heart more than seeing the emotions or happy tears on people’s faces when I deliver my paintings to them. Knowing that my work helps keep their memories alive”.
Welcome to my vibrant world, where paw-sitive emotions come to life in stunning, colourful detail.
About Me: I’m Katia Holmes, an artist based in Norton Canes, Cannock, Staffordshire. I specialise in creating exquisite and photo-realistic portraits. My passion shines through in every stroke with pastels and pastel pencils as my preferred medium. Which allow me to infuse each artwork with vibrant hues and life like precision. I capture the essence of beloved subjects and cherished memories, bringing them to life on canvas.
Custom Portraits: As a passionate artist, I work on a commission basis, transforming cherished photographs into personalised masterpieces. Whether it’s pets, horses, wildlife, children, or people. Each portrait I create is a labour of love, meticulously crafted to reflect the unique spirit of its subject.
Local Artistry, Global Appeal: While my roots are in Norton Canes, my custom portraits have a global reach, cherished by patrons worldwide. I’m incredibly grateful to the Cannock community and beyond for their unwavering support, which fuels my creative journey.
Gallery Showcase: Museum of Cannock Chase Exhibition 2022 and 2024. I proudly showcase my talent at the Museum of Cannock Chase during my solo exhibitions in May-June 2022 and May-July 2024.
SEE MORE ARTWORK BY KATIA HOLMES
Linda Karslake
Artist Statement: “Being an artist is incredibly rewarding. Witnessing someone fall in love with my paintings and experience deep emotions makes it all worthwhile”.
Born in the vibrant city of Leeds and now creating in my dedicated studio in Selby. I am Linda Karslake, a passionate abstract artist with a decade of professional experience.
My artistic journey, primarily self-taught, has been a lifelong pursuit with nature and the ever-changing coast serving as my muse. The ebb and flow of time and tide. The dance of patina, texture, and colour across natural canvases inspire my work. As an artist and a tutor, I strive to capture these transient moments, sharing with the beauty in impermanence through my art.
SEE MORE ARTWORKS BY LINDA KARSLAKE
Kevin Jackson
Artist Statement: “It excites me when my painting and prints are a communication of a thought process, an evocation of emotion”.
I worked as a fine art printer, engraver and lecturer on post-graduation from Chelsea School of Art in 1976.
My painting, engraving and limited edition prints have been exhibited in both the United Kingdom and international galleries. I’ve developed commissioned work for institutions, public areas and private clients.
For twenty years I collaborated with fellow artist Rima Farah, each of us signing our joint paintings and limited edition prints. Farah.Jackson work was exhibited in Europe, Japan, North America and with particular success in the Middle East.
In the last few years my work and research has been presented in various contexts including: BTW Gallery, London; The London Group (prize-winner); Skip Gallery, Milan; International Symposia in Istanbul and Urla, Turkey, Germany and San Anton, Austria; Galerie Moreno, Landsberg am Lech, Germany; and the Barakat Trust, London.
My work is represented in the Jordanian Royal Collection, the British Museum, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris. In both corporate and private collections. Son of a sea-farer and a social worker, I come from Portsmouth Hampshire UK, b.1954. I live and work between London and Milan.
SEE MORE ARTWORKS BY KEVIN JACKSON
Angus Lowe
Artist Statement: “I love the act of painting when searching for a balance between chaos and order, always keeping in mind the task set out by Deleuze to ‘render visible forces that are not themselves visible’.”
Angus Lowe studied Art History at University of Manchester before an MA in Architectural History at UCL.
His process allows for an incidental development of forms. The first marks are intuitive, freed from intention, close to Surrealism’s automatic drawing. Often using a marker pen, the lines become a notation for a subject. Imagining the physicality of being that subject, a methodology developed from BA research into empathy and kinaesthetics, suggests a certain gestural energy, which is then manifested with oil paint.
This method necessarily results in a wide variety of images due to chance being at their evolutionary core. What they have in common is considered attention to the characteristics of each brush stroke and how their painterly interaction reveals the underlying force of the subject.
His first solo exhibition From Lines (held in London where he lives and works) in 2019 focussed the technique. A portrait was intended when making rapid marker pen lines before oil paint fleshed figures onto the ‘bones’ of these marks. His project starting in 2022, ‘Tectons’, involves a freeform addition of planes emulating the shifting of tectonic plates.
‘Sunset at Noon’ was selected by Conrad Shawcross for the 2022 Summer Exhibition at The Royal Academy. Seven works were included in the 2023 Art for Youth Exhibition at The Mall Galleries.
‘Fruits of Labour’, a joint exhibition inspired by Dylan Thomas’ Poem ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower’ is showing at Greatorex Street Gallery 12-18th Sept ’24.
SEE MORE ARTWORKS BY ANGUS LOWE
Sarah Dowson
Artist Statement: ‘I am ‘ARTY’ person who loves to make people happy with my fine art drawings and paintings’.
My name is Sarah and my art journey started after I retired as a midwife some fifteen or so years ago. In the beginning I created digital art. However, I soon developed an urge, deep down, to create it physically in a traditional way.
I started with graphite pencil, moving on to soft pastels and pastel pencils, but I really wanted to try watercolour. It was when I discovered Youtube that my watercolour journey began. After watching hundreds of hours of video tutorials and hours of practice.
I have reached the standard of art that I create today, mostly with transparent watercolour and occasionally gouache. Recently, I added coloured pencils to my skill set, creating realistic art with each, but often combining the two. Watercolour and coloured pencil, a marriage made in heaven!
My favourite subject is animal realism, both wildlife and pets. However, I often venture into the world of landscapes and botanicals too.
SEE MORE ARTWORKS BY SARAH DOWSON
