Brighton’s Arty: Bamboleo, bambolea

We’ve just started designing this year’s book – Brighton’s Artists 2015 – which means three things: Tesco on Queen’s Road needs to up its game re-stocking the Rioja shelf. No-one in the house of Krog is going to get a decent night’s sleep until March, as all Arty endeavours have to fit around our ‘normal’ jobs, so tend to be nocturnal or weekend. And our neighbours are being treated to the Gypsy Kings playing on the loop – because when you’re subbing layouts and necking red wine at 2am there’s nothing like a Spanish rhythm to keep you going.

What’s really motivating us, though, is the excitement as each participating artist submits their imagery and we get to see both the evolution of Arty regulars and the new artwork that will feature this year.

We’ve worshipped the talent of Ian Hodgson since we first met him. Whether representing the human form or local architecture, his intricate drawings all reference the transformative process of journey. So it’s fascinating to see that his own path has taken him back to Brighton’s Peace Statue once more.

Also taking inspiration from the city – but applying a dramatically different technique – is one of the book’s new entrants for 2015, Val Fawbert. Working with a palette knife and acrylics, Val skims and scrapes to bring energy to the sculptural, kinetic characters that appear to arrive and depart from her compelling, textural canvases.
flowers
Out of town
‘Revealing the Nature Around Us’ is local artist Claire Harrison’s first solo show in Sussex and explores relationships and forms from the natural world that we normally overlook. Claire explores the miniature, miniscule and microscopic of the floral and insect worlds – fascinated by patterns that repeat in nature on all scales. See for yourself at the Ropetackle, Shoreham-by-sea, until 27 February.
www.artymagazines.com