3 New Artists: Seçil Erel, Sophie Fields and Polly Bennett

Seçil Erel’s abstract paintings are a captivating amalgam of geometry, colour, movement and light. Influenced by architecture, metronomic repetition and the creation of new textures, her work entrances the viewer with its almost spiritual dedication to the power of colour. Each piece is a uniquely multi-layered work that opens up the senses to new experiences and potential discoveries. From decadent crimsons to the most sea swept of blues, her colours widen tired eyes with their pulsating boldness. Now London-based, Erel was originally born in Istanbul and studied in Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan Fine Art Academy. She has exhibited in Ankara, New York, London, and Düsseldorf just to name a few, and published her first artist’s monograph in 2016.

For intriguing colour block prints – Sophie Fields’s work hits the mark. Almost mosaic-like, her prints bring together an array of shapes that slot together, and take on their own unique characters amongst the fray. Each piece is a puzzle that doesn’t quite fit; the white space between each shape jumps out at the viewer, creating a visual surface full of contrast and energy. Fields is also influenced by colours and tonal variations from everyday life – growing up on the Yorkshire coast inspires her to develop patten and colour from a close interaction with nature. Previously ‘Artist in Residence’at George Watson’s College, she has produced permanent textile work for Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre.

With ingenuity and technical skill, Polly Bennett creates uniquely tactile works that investigate the rural environment. A landscape artist “portraying the land, with the land”, each project uses locally sourced materials and combines them with observational experiment and craftmanship. It’s a museological approach that reaps conceptually robust finished pieces – abstract paintings border on sculpture, ‘memory urns’ become something completely out of the ordinary. Most recently, Bennett completed a project capturing the River Thames, a landmark of “liquid history” that has born witness to human life since the Neolithic period. Reviving found objects, Bennett recreated new vessels of remembrance seeped in glorious earthiness and texture. Bennett is currently an Honorary Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, and also a member of the Wilderness Art Collective.

Universal Fragments: Scarlet by Seçil Erel