The Michael Heseltine Gallery in Middleton Cheney will be filled with drawings, paintings and prints by artist John Sprakes for a month from 16 September. This will be Sprakes’ first exhibition in this part of the country. His studio is in Beverley, where he paints still life and interior paintings exploring interactions between objects present and remembered, while the movement of light and colour in Norfolk, Suffolk and Northumberland inspire his landscapes.
Sprakes uses acrylics, Liquitex, canvas, board, paper, card, a brush, palette knife, drawing media of all kinds, photography and colourful gesso grounds. He works mainly from life but sometimes uses photography for information and investigation. He tends to plan paintings using sketched studies done on the spot. He also works directly from nature. He uses drawing as an act of discovery allowing him to explore the visual world. Drawing is the starting point for most of his ideas.
Sprakes is a Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. He says “Creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional surfaces produces the kind of visual magic that enables the spectator to experience a new way of seeing”.
On Sunday 1 October the artist will be talking about and demonstrating his techniques in the gallery. Tickets are available from Middleton Cheney Library or on-line at www.ticketsource.co.uk/MCLSG.
The exhibition is organised by the Middleton Cheney Library Supporters Group, with funding from South Northamptonshire Council and sponsored by Town & County Plumbing & Heating.