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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

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