Glenda's artist life
A summary of her story
Glenda Gibson Artist
Glenda painted her first oil painting side by side with her mother, Elaine Harris, at age 9. This little still life has been lost but the love of painting in oils remains. Glenda also used oils to paint her major works in High School. After many busy years as a mother and school teacher she took up painting again starting with water colours and then acrylics and multimedia. Finally she returned to serious exploration with oils.
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Artist Statement
Glenda Gibson is a self-taught artist who primarily paints in oils but also enjoys layering her work with a variety of other mediums. She enjoys the looking and seeing that goes towards the small observations in the landscape around her or in the people she meets. Her work has been representational but now she is more interested in producing paintings that are abstract or semi-abstract in appearance.
There is a physicality about her work which stems from both the size of the canvas she uses to the way in which she applies the paint. This enables her body to respond both with wide sweeping movements and the calming rhythm of smaller marks not unlike a dance across the canvas and in a response to its taut surface.
Glenda’s use of oils is done in such a way as to try and push the medium as much as she can with the marks she makes. She interacts with the medium through scraping, scratching, printing and stencilling along with the more conventional use of the brush. Her work also incorporates the use of mixed media to add texture with different types of tactile mark making .
Patterns also play an important role. She takes these observations from nature and weaves them in to her work. She is interested in the way in which shapes and lines can be disrupted to bring about an asymmetrical beauty and a more dynamic energy.
Her paintings have been described as ‘colour stories’ and this points to another important facet of her work. She is not one to shy away from the application of clean, bright and saturated colour along with the sometimes more muted tones. Her process begins with the use of colour to activate the canvas, often from paint left on her palette. She uses colour to express a range of emotions from joy to anger. In addition, colour is used to convey a spirituality and her work has been said to have ‘colour, kindness and faith’. Her hope is to bless others in the way she herself feels blessed with the richness of the colours available to her.
Artist's Bio
Glenda Gibson is originally from Australia but has now settled near to Nottingham in the UK. She is a self-taught artist and works predominantly in oils in an abstract or semi abstract way and likes to disrupt shapes and lines to create an asymmetrical beauty. She enjoys the physicality of painting and tries to push the way she uses oils to the limit by scratching, printing, and use of glazes. Alongside this, her love of colour is apparent in the way she applies saturated colour to represent emotions and spirituality. She is currently deepening her understanding of composition through weekly portrait drawing and small daily prayer paintings. Those who buy her work comment on the joy, faith and friendship which flow out from her colourful paintings.
She has exhibited on a regular basis since 2007 and as the curator of Kooroon Gallery where she ran exhibitions for other artists.
In 2019 she was the Arts Co-ordinator for a Methodist Modern Art Collection exhibition in Leicester and went on to create a zine using the poetry written in response to the paintings. She has worked for her own church as their Art Co-ordinator which includes painting, creating posters and a logo for the church as well as a series of work featuring the stations of the cross. Glenda has painted prophetically during worship in church services. She is a co-leader of This Beautiful Dust with Donna Drouin, a group which aims to encourage Christian artists and together they have recently launched a podcast talking about various aspects of art and living as an artist, called Art Dust.
She enjoys encouraging others on their artistic journey. She teaches a children’s art class locally and was featured in REtoday in 2017 for her work in collaborating with a local primary school on the theme Incarnation and again in 2019 in Shaped every day, about prophetic painting. She also teaches adult classes encouraging them to find new skills and develop their mark making. She organises workshops and led an oil painting workshop based on the work of the artist Jyoti Sahi, and Oil Painting Experimentation.
Glenda is painting a mural in her house, doing illustrations for a children’s book and creating paintings around the theme of Release.
Curriculum Vitae
Solo Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions with Kooroon Gallery, in Bottesford, UK
2021 Birch Trees
2019 Succulent (Jane)
2018 The Treachery of Birds
Joint exhibitions with an artist
(unless otherwise stated the exhibitions take place at Kooroon Gallery, Bottesford UK)
2022 ROS (Rutland Open Studios) with Donna Drouin, Melton UK
The Father’s Kiss with Silversmith Hazel Fox
2020 Open with Decorative artist Dian Harrison
2017 Stories with Textile artist Jane Millum
Group exhibitions
(unless otherwise stated the exhibitions take place at Kooroon Gallery, Bottesford UK)
2023 Drawing is free:10 year Anniversary, Paris College of Art, Paris
2022 Kooroon Christmas exhibition
2021 Christmas Kooroon Rutland Open Studio
2020 Inspired, International and online, with Christian Artist Together
2019 Christmas at Kooroon Gallery
BUMP: Who gives a crap toilet paper and Toilet Twinning inspired
Belvoir Art Trail, Vale of Beaver UK
2018 Kooroon Gallery Christmas
Weave: un-lonliness project
2017 Bottesford Art Trail, Vale of Belvoir UK
SAFETEA - tea bag art about Brexit
2014 Ride and Stride
Lady of the Vale
2013 VoBAS (Vale of Belvoir Art Society)
Workshops
2023 12 lessons of art for children, Bottesford UK
2022 Innovative oil Painting, The Old Sorting House, Bottesford UK
Series of 18 lessons of art for children, Bottesford UK
Quiet Hour, 4 sessions, St Mary the Virgin, Bottesford UK
2019 Hearts and Skills Ministry, Rotherham UK
2017 Incarnation, Bottesford Primary School, UK
2015 Spirituality and the Arts, Painting session, Monos, Coalville UK
2014 - 20 Creative Space Workshops for Adults, monthly, Bottesford UK
2013 Watercolour workshop, Holiday at Home, Coventry UK
2002 - 06 Art curriculum lead, All Saints Primary School, Elston UK
Other art related employment
2019 Church logo, Windmill Church, Bottesford UK
2017 -19 Belvoir Art Trail, Chair of team
2018 -19 Art consultant for MMAC (Methodist Modern Art Collection)
exhibition, Leicester UK
2018 Weave: un-lonliness project, Curator and Team leader
2018 -19 Volunteer at the Art tent, KingsStock Music Festival
2017 Walking in the Light conference, promotion and design,
Bottesford, UK
2016 - Kooroon Gallery, Founder and Curator, Bottesford UK
2015 - 16 Private art lessons on a one-to-one basis, Bottesford UK
2014 After School Art project, Magnus High School, Newark UK
2012 Stations of the Cross paintings, St Mary’s Bottesford UK
2011-16 Arts Co-ordinator, St Mary the Virgin, Bottesford UK
2011 Art Retreat leader, Sanctuary, annual event, Leven UK
2010 Born for significance, flyer design, Bottesford UK
2009 Logo, Friends of St Mary’s, Bottesford UK
O Anthions, series of 8 paintings, St Mary’s Bottesford UK
2007 - This Beautiful Dust, network group for Christian artists
Collections
Private
Ewan Edwards of Allington, UK (12 works)
Public
Artwork in Loughborough University Chapel
Press and publications
2021 Taylor, M., Artist and teacher set to run art workshops for
children near Grantham this summer, July, Grantham Journal
Mason, John, Art gallery opens with dynamic solo exhibition,
April 29, Melton Times.
Old sorting office brings together a variety of art forms,
September, Grantham Journal (Newspaper)
Education
2002 Qualified Teacher Status, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of
Higher Education
1997 Adult Education and Training (Bachelor of Education), University
of South Australia, Adelaide
1994 Graduate Diploma in Education (Infants/Primary), University of
New England, New South Wales, Australia
1988 Batchelor of Arts, University of New England, New South Wales,
Australia
Short Courses
2022 Keswick Art Retreat Weekend with Alistair Gordon
Making it (six evenings) Leith School of Art with Alistair Garden
2023 Keswick Art Retreat Weekend with Alistair Gordon