A peek inside the Insight taster show for Open Studios West Berks and North Hants

Insight 2023: Open Studios taster exhibition at The Base at Greenham. Review by LIN WILKINSON. Pictures by PHIL CANNINGS.

The Open Studios taster exhibition shows a multiplicity of work, approaches and genres, and is an ideal way to see samples of work by all artists showing in the scheme.

Among the sculptors, Kevin Scully, in a move away from painting, shows a lively, mixed-media wild boar, Diana Pattendon a bronze resin and ceramic beehive, crawling with oversized gold-lustre bees.

Petra Giede-Barnes’ imposing, Brancusi-inspired sculpture uses found wood and objects; her wallpiece combines shoreline finds with made elements. Gavin Wilkinson’s abstract works show an interest in elemental sculptural forms, balance, and challenging contrasts of material.

There’s a strong contingent of ceramicists. Kevin Akhurst’s stoneware Gold Pod is pleasingly tactile, with its simple shape, warm colour and gleaming surface. Moya Tosh shows allied, two-element pieces referencing bark, the two sections of Ancient Walnut nicely offset. Katy Morris exhibits an irregularly shaped and ‘folded’ platter in deep greens, blues and maroons; Susie Oates’ classically shaped vase has a brilliant shine, minimal decoration, and a pitted and stamped interior.

Superb glassware from Shirley Eccles, including a platter bearing whorls of deep blues, and a delicate vase contrasting clear glass with gestural colour. Jason Leggett’s glass Dancing Flames are lit from beneath, animating the piece. Jim Crockatt has added painted blue elements to his oak platter: a pleasing contrast of natural wood and colour.

Among the jewellery on display, Paula White’s silver pendant has an asymmetrical, three-section hanging element, studded with garnet, citrine and peridot.

As ever, painters are well represented. How cheering to see a still life that has moved away from quiet domestic politeness! Tanya Reid’s Floral Dream is big and bold, in composition, execution and colour. Jane Skingley pays tribute to Hokusai in her minimal, Japanese-inspired oil and ink pieces on vintage book pages; they lend the work an historic feel.

Cat Croxford uses strong, heightened, semi-naturalistic colour in her large acrylic, often applied in small blocky brushstrokes; the foreground tree-trunks are imposing and animate. Two semi-abstracted works take differing approaches. Bruce Bamber uses pastels in a spirited way in his seascape, with areas of vibrant colour; in Sydney Klugman’s Lugurian work, the sensual material surface is as important as the subject matter. Richard Francis Bellin has moved to full abstraction in his nicely controlled oil, Equilibrio.

There’s a tangible sense of immediacy and vigour in Isabel Carmona Andreu’s watercolour Field and Clouds. Susan Kirkman’s masterly small collage includes elements of musical notation; Emma Green’s stencil print allies text to representation.

Emma Clifton-Brown shows two graphite drawings, intense and mysterious, the emphasis on linearity, edges and angles. Demi Long’s pen and ink drawing of an elevation of Edinburgh Old Town is concerned with the depiction of detail.

Lucy Joyce’s super-realistic acrylic zebra is painted with no context on a zinging pink background, so the colour contrasts sing. Benjamin Honisett’s fun, in-your-face digital prints pay homage to Pop Art. They’re all about bright, demarcated colour fields, simplified form, and graphic design.

Deborah Caulfield’s two wallpieces combine textiles and embroidery; the scale of the smaller one works particularly well. Sue Crook’s wearable textiles comprise a multi-colour stole, and a silk scarf with decorative gestural motifs. Victoria Baker’s beautifully crafted bags include Polly Gon: black, many-sided, with an embossed surface.

Jon Townsin’s two Light Cubes demonstrate a really imaginative combination of pierced oak and walnut structures with interior light bulbs: inventive, contemporary lighting.

The free exhibition runs daily until 29 May (10-5; last entry 4pm).

Booking required: www.thebasegreenham.co.uk; tel: 01635 522733.