Oxfordshire Artweeks show Love is... at Worton Park, Cassington (From The Oxford Times)

Oxfordshire Artweeks show Love is... at Worton Park, Cassington

9:50am Thursday 10th May 2012 in Art By Anne James

This exhibition brings together 12 artists each exploring what love means to them. Kay Jamieson takes as her theme the Oxford Canal, where indeed she met love. Working in acrylics she captures the gentle pace of both the canal itself and the boats and barges that use it.

Violeta Corzo and Sarah Wood work together making one-off pieces of jewellery, drawing their inspiration from the countryside and its plants. This results in delicate and eminently wearable silver pieces featuring flowers and foliage.

Jeweller Margaret Quon uses silver, semi-precious stones and crystal in her pieces. She, too, draws inspiration from the world around her, including Oxford itself.

Portrait painter and expressionist artist Amy Hemingway works mainly in oils and charcoal. In a series created especially for this exhibition she will be mixing compressed charcoal into her oil paintings to create mood and depth, exploring three different kinds of love; Christian love (agape), paternal love and romantic love.

Graham Rice is showing his Whispering to the Wind series, which draws on the pre-Raphaelite themes of romance, poetry and dreams. Katia Bellini is showing a new series of work in oil on canvas based on her gentle romantic landscapes. Wendy Gilmour works in stone, wood and mixed media to create figurative, impressionistic and abstract pieces. Kamal Lathar’s (KDL) paintings explode with the warmth, colour and vibrancy of his native India, each piece woven around an inner story.

Lizzie Hurst, a 3D textile artist, is well known for her intricate detail and good use of colour. On show are pieces from her range of bridal head-wear and gifts. Illustrated above is Bridal Groom Bird I, where her clever use of mixed media results in a delightful delicate souvenir designed for a happy wedding day.

Kate Hopkins-Searle loves shoes. But the shoes she makes have a difference. She uses clay to represent leather, fabrics and decorative trimmings. She develops the concept of the perfect shoe by exaggerating that idea with an impossibly long toe and very narrow fit. The result is a sumptuous range of beautifully crafted and stunning pairs of shoes.

The exhibition is enhanced by Rachel Williams’s floral art. Those who know her work with Citrus Moon Designs will be familiar with her imaginative and creative style, and the fact she works using locally sourced flowers.

Love is . . . takes place at Worton Park, near Cassington, until May 13. Open daily 11am – 6pm.