New Work: Niall Stevenson, Toni Cogdell, Sara Willett and more

It’s a continual delight to see the work Toni Cogdell makes, and at the moment she has a host of new paintings on display. As a previous collector of her work, we thought you may enjoy taking a look.

The subjects of Toni Cogdell’s portraits crystallise in the midst of colour and texture’s motion, like the scattering of light across a garden. Literary and art historical allusion situate these paintings in a continuum of artistic achievement, and they examine the solitary moment of introspection that is the beginning of all such discoveries.

The holistic scene is constructed by harmonising subtle tones with elements of boldly coloured, gestural brushwork; these paintings follow the terra incognita of the soul: a work in progress.

Sara Willett has a fantastic array of work on display at the moment. All the works are variations on a theme, and all are distinctive entities in their own right. The eye is drawn to one or another of the distinctive atmosphere of these gorgeous, organic abstractions.

Their highly textured, immersive surfaces on the painted canvas elicit thoughts of optical illusions – think Bridget Riley. But Sara turns more to nature: the rhythm of her paintings can bring one up short before plunging into their undulations, like the experience – bordering on the sublime – of catching sight of a swallow murmuration at dusk, or the swirling water between rocks of an incoming tide.

With every painting, Julia Blackshaw captures the serenity of the individual in her own space, whether that’s heading for a beach, reading a book, or with a close companion. Some of Julia’s works currently on display feel like summer: see ‘My Sunshine’, ‘From the Garden’ and ‘Surf Day’.
The endless appeal of a silhouette, a partial story for the viewer’s imagination to fulfil, is what characterises Julia’s work. As a previous collector, we thought you might enjoy looking at what she has lately been producing.

Niall Stevenson has reminded us with his new work why he is such a thrilling painter of landscapes. He conveys the magmic flux: the drama of geographical process. In these latest works colours seem to hang above the formations, giving that sense of the land’s essentially changeable tones: modulating from season to season, from hour to hour as the light changes.

These works express the elongation of a person’s vision when they look across a vast scene. Niall has created his own pictorial language in response to the stretching of a horizon. The intense tones and hues he deftly employs to render nature are like currents of electricity through the paint. This is classical painting – oil on canvas – revitalised.

German Landscape (Drachenfels) by Niall Stevenson

Landscape (M) by Niall Stevenson

Landscape (W) by Niall Stevenson

Coming Together by Toni Cogdell

Untethered by Toni Cogdell

Fabrication Land by Sara Willett

Fabrication Blue by Sara Willett

From the Garden by Julia Blackshaw

Capturing by Julia Blackshaw