Meet 4 new graduate artists: Ella-Mae Jackson, Sophie Bazgier, Jilly Cragg and Margaret Brown

Ella-Mae Jackson: "My name is stinkypinky. i like to paint. pink. sometimes other colours. my paintings are personal. expressive. heated. sometimes confessional. a bit crude. sexy. very stinky. i paint for me. i do not paint for academia. especially tutors. or a grade. i like non-traditional art. non-traditional ways of making. and thinking. open-minded ideas. heavily influenced by graffiti. “vandalism”"

Sophie Bazgier: "I’ve been concentrating on transforming my form from figurative art to abstraction, searching for a synthesis and a breakdown of the form, a new form of drawing. I’ve responded to the works of Contemporary artist Dryden Goodwin, who says: ‘I am working into dimension directly from lots of observation. I’m dealing with fragments of time, that if I’m not trying to concern this moment, it will be something else’ (Goodwin, 2006), and to the Painter Lee Krasner whose work is about the nature of nature, a volcano of energy in content and form, and creative discipline. (Siegel, 2019) Emotions and forms have taken away drawing from the limits of making a mark on paper. For me it is very important keep line separate from another line to not create a stain. All form must correspond together, but they must be separate in the same moment."

Jilly Cragg: "As a visual artist, my art practice is predominately focused on trees and the hidden beauty of them. I am interested in the notion of how our well-being can be improved by spending time in nature and our relationship to trees. Due to Covid 19 lockdowns, I was able to use my daily exercise to my advantage and spent much time in local woodlands, observing, documenting, and relaxing. I make intaglio prints of isolated images of different parts of the tree to show beauty from all aspects of the tree, even if it looks "ugly", I find it fascinating how a felled tree can still provide life to the nearby habit even when thought to be dead, they give back to the earth."

Margaret Brown: "My current practice is concerned with the notion of geological deep time and the certainty that every aspect of matter and life as we know it has been, and still is, infinitely connected. Source material for my practice derives from close observation of the natural world, particularly geological form. My research process includes magnifying grains of sand, photographing, sketching and studying pebbles, rock forms and strata in various locations. In each case I intentionally observe the blatant impact of human behaviour, represented, even in the remotest of areas and amongst the smallest of sand samples by the omnipresent scourge of plastic detritus. I seek through my work to convey humanity’s starkly disproportionate level of damage to Earth’s sophisticated ecological systems during our infinitesimal transience, juxtaposed against the backdrop of our ancient, enduring planet and the inconceivable permanence of deep time."

POSH by Ella-Mae Jackson