'Contrast' / Skyline Project Space / Curated by Kathleen Mullaniff

Skyline Project Space is pleased to announce an exhibition of the works of three artists; Derek Burrows (1923-1999), Eugene Palmer and Kathleen Mullaniff.
Skyline Project Space is located in St Leonards-on-Sea, which has been the destination for a number of visual artists re-locating from the metropolis in order to enjoy the Hastings light, air and architecture. Hastings has been a creative hub for the arts for many years, music, theatre and visual arts are celebrated both at a local and national level.
The three artists, participating in ‘contrast’, present very different images and ideas but what they have in common is a ‘love’ of painting and drawing. Fascinated by landscape, the human presence, colour and pattern, all three have invested ‘time’ and ‘thought’ in the technical application of the painted and drawn mark.
Derek Burrows was a devoted watercolour painter depicting the seascape and town of Hastings. His paintings have a lightness of touch that allows the atmosphere, light and texture of ‘place’ to filter through delicate veils of transparent paint. The figures, which he painted in his works, display an understanding of ‘form’ created by a few carefully placed brush marks.
Eugene Palmer explores identity and history in his work. Tracing the journeys of those that have migrated and found new lives in other places, his paintings reflect upon both the ‘joy and sorrow’ of the ‘migrant’ experience. From the portrait to landscape to the seascape his painted and drawn mark is full of empathy and questioning.
Kathleen Mullaniff explores the detail of patterns, usually flowers in her paintings and drawings. The ornament printed on wallpaper and textile pattern fascinate her. These works allow her to consider the many ways in which the ‘history of the home’ contains a number of patterned decorative forms, which she enlarges and celebrates through the painting process.
‘Contrast’, the title for this exhibition is a fitting one, in that the links made between the three artists whose work is very different, however painting is always about contrast. Colour, composition, line and tone describe form through the bringing together of contrasting marks to create a whole image. The ideas in these works explore ‘contrast’ as an experience of our everyday lives.