Ruthin Craft Centre
The Centre for the Applied Arts

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Courtyard Project Spaces A & B

Kim Dewsbury & Gerald Dewsbury

On The Wall 9 April – 8 May 2022

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A series of crafted fine art by north Wales artists
Series curation: Jonathan Le Vay

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Over the last decade Kim has returned to her passion for painting, after spending several years organising and curating exhibitions in North Wales. From Cornwall originally, but raised in the Midlands, Kim returned to Falmouth in 1975 to study Fine Art. Married to the painter Gerald Dewsbury, Llangwm in North Wales has been their home for many years.

Kim is really excited by all the possibilities opening up again in her painting – it is primarily an exploration of what she sees in front of her, and while enjoying the physical properties of paint she aims to give a solidity and reality to her subject matter – and a significance to objects and ideas which form the work.

“Inspired by my rural surroundings – I value that first hand contact with nature; my sketchbooks are filled with walks, insects, clouds, natural ephemera, etc. Patterns and textures fascinate: the velvety skin of a peach, the undulating folds of a distant hillside, the patina of a well thumbed book …. Everything has a story to tell”.

Kim has exhibited widely in the past – including Royal Academy Summer Shows, Lle Celf, Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru, Y Tabernacl, Machynlleth, John Noott, Broadway, Twenty Twenty, Ludlow and Falmouth Art Gallery to name a few. In 2013 Kim was selected as the winner of the North Wales Open at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold. Kim now exhibits regularly at Ffin y Parc in Llanrwst. The work exhibited here is a selection of work produced over the last ten years.

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Born in Dartford, Kent in 1957, Gerald Dewsbury moved to Nottinghamshire in 1959 and spent the majority of his formative years roaming its comparatively mild countryside and developing
an intimate interest in all its aspects.

Following a Foundation Course at Mansfield College of Art, Gerald then pursued a BA Degree Course at Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall. While at Falmouth he was selected to exhibit in the Stowells Trophy Exhibition held at the Royal Academy and also for the David Murray Scholarship for landscape painting; Gerald graduated in 1980.

After leaving college Gerald pursued his vocation and career as an Artist and moved to North Wales in search of a wilder and more varied landscape. He has since exhibited his work in many galleries in both Wales and England.

In 1989 Gerald Dewsbury was the joint winner in the National Eisteddfod Exhibition. He has since won many prizes, including the Biennial Open at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, where his painting was purchased by the Museum for their collection.

Gerald also has work in the collection of the ‘National Society for Contemporary Art in Wales’, and in 2002 and 2018 works were bought for the collection of ‘Museum of Modern Art, Wales’. In March 2003 Gerald was elected as a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy. Gerald exhibits regularly at Ffin y Parc in Llanrwst, The Lion Street Gallery in Hay on Wye and at the Twenty Twenty Gallery in Ludlow.

Gerald has work in numerous private collections, and regularly works to commission; a series of six landscapes was completed in 2005 for the Sultan of Oman, commissioned for the new Palace in Muscat.

“I now live in Llangwm (Sir Conwy) in the shadow of Foel Goch, surrounded by a landscape that I have painted for the last 35 years – a landscape I have come to love and intimately know. My subject matter comes primarily from the landscape and the myriad of minutiae that are found within it. I am not just interested in the broad aspect of what I see, nor in just capturing the ‘essence’ of a place. A molehill can fascinate as much as a mountain; roots, stones, branches etc can take on a life of their own, and certain places draw me back again and again as there is always something new to discover and paint.”