Meet the Artists in the Winter Show

The annual Winter Show features over 45 Richmond-based artists, showcasing the vibrancy of the Borough’s visual arts community. Four of the artists in this year’s exhibition tell us more about their work. 

What is it about Parkour that inspires you? 

Leo Maude-Roxby: It’s the community and the people who do it make it what it is. I feel part of something and it’s a very ‘accepting’ world for a neurodiverse person. 

Is it more exciting capturing the moment with your camera or being in the moment?  

LMR: I’m in the moment when I take the photograph – it’s an instant thing when I’m among the athletes. I see the photograph in my head after watching what’s happening with the athletes, and then when I take it I know it’s going to be good. 

Is there something special about showing your work in your home borough?  

LMR: I met close friends and family and people I haven’t seen for a long time came to see my work.  

How do you choose which materials go into your mixed-media work? 

Nisha Rowe: I paint by intuition so I channel my mood, reflect on memories and my mind picks out the colours to begin with, and then I go along with my flow adding/removing elements. I always work with mixed media as I love to add various texture to all of my pieces. Once I know where I want to add accents or highlight areas, that is when I choose the medium to work with like gesso, spray or leafing.
  

How does the theme of hope feature in your work? 

NR: This particular piece has a vast darkness to it, but the movement of the strokes and the gold leafing depicts change and hope. The storm is rife but there stands a strong beacon of hope.
  

Could you tell us about your experience being in the Winter Show for the first time? 

NR: It was such a great experience to be around fellow artists, and to be involved with such high calibre work. The variety was outstanding and it was a wonderful community feel. 

This piece originated from closely studied drawings that you made outside, along the Thames. How does working outside inform your practice?  

The basis to my work stem from drawings which are generally made en plein air. My drawings and prints are a personal reflection or response to the particular landscape within the area of Richmond and Kew, a place where I have lived for many years. 

Where is your favourite place to find inspiration? 

In particular, I find the riverbank at Kew where the landscape is transformed daily due to the regular ebb and flow of the Thames tide, to be compelling.  Equally captivating to me is to see and study how the natural landscape in Richmond Park is forever in flux, constantly being moved by ever changing weather and the seasons 

What does having your work included in the Winter Show mean to you? 

The opportunity to exhibit work in a professional gallery is a most valuable learning experience since it affords the opportunity to view your own work with fresh eyes,  together with the other exhibiting artists, and away from the confines of home. 

What is the story behind this painting? 

Shilpi Deb: The idea of self is fragile. Identity is continuously cultivated, collected and put on, what’s innate and what we pick consciously/unconsciously. This piece went through similar processes of “putting on”; repetitive layering, porous stippling, each layer collecting and subtly affecting the next till it’s impossible to isolate any single-one completely, all fusing into one fuzzy-everchanging form.  

How do you approach making your work?  

SD: I have tangles in my brain that need sorting out, if not sorted on time, they spill on to my everyday life in very disruptive ways. The work comes out of me trying to work through my tangles, I sketch out or write till I capture what is on my mind, sometimes these turn into paintings or other types of fabric or clay pieces, sometimes they remain messy and in my books. Once a tangle is sorted, I move on, but many times I find myself returning to a few core tangles, these seem like they are here to stay, so the work is also an attempt to accept them.   

You recently moved to Richmond from Kenya. What does it mean to show your work in London for the first time? 

The artworld in general is daunting and it’s very easy to feel like an outsider, moving to a new city amplified this to the max. I was (AM!) extremely nervous about this move but wins like this make all the difference. Being selected and being given the opportunity to exhibit by the Orleans House Gallery team has been very encouraging. I’m very excited to be a part of this show and I’m hoping to meet more of the art community in the area. I’m also hoping to ride on this momentum and keep working, it’s difficult to continuously produce creative work when there are only dead ends ahead, so getting to exhibit in London for the first time is a very motivating way to start the year!