Naturally Occurring – Cecilia Mann and Yelena Visemirska

Immersing in nature evokes a sense of freedom/emotion, because landscapes are naturally occurring, and have a way of connecting with us on a deeper level.

From the artist, Cecilia Mann: Exploring my son Darren’s photography of his hillwalking and cycling has been the inspiration of this exhibition. Allowing me to investigate colour, light, structure and listening to his adventures to tell a story through my artwork. Landscapes evolving at their own pace whilst engaging with the seasons, slowly or dramatically, whilst we observe emotionally and with awe. Nature is indeed an artist shaping the mountains and landcapes, texture, shadow, contours with its never ending palette of plants, snow ice, sun, rain and everything that is natural at its fingertips. During my painting of any of the works, although I have not been on those mountains, but have been on some walks, I feel that I am there in the moment and am so absorbed with what I am painting that it becomes real for me, absorbing the atmosphere, emotion and the character of that place. Personally, I prefer not to write to much about the work, but rather leave it to the viewer to read the paintings in their own words, engaging in their own way. Similar to reading a book and then reading the same book with a different perspective each time. We all have a story to tell, which makes the process of discovery and learning an exciting journey.

From the artist, Yelena Visemirska: My most recent work is concerned with structures of lines and geometric forms. My main study is based on the invasion of industrial landscapes in natural habitats. During the creative process, I have found myself mostly drawn to the memory of places where I have been and atmospheric experiences that put a mark on my memory. We store and process our responses and thoughts, carrying them through our lives. My goal throughout this investigation of creativity was to gain a better understanding of emerging emotions and feelings towards architectural spaces that filter through my bodily experiences. Close-ups of blocks in urban spaces inform how I compose and layout my paintings. It makes me think about making the marks which represent and interpret part of space occupied by the object abstracting from location and orientation in space, size and other properties such as colour, content and material composition. I use observational photography, searching for the right tone of colours through the lens on industrial surfaces like stains, rust, and old faded paint. From soft greys, which I saw in concrete payments, I ‘adopted’ bright blue, yellow, red… The combination of contrasting tones of colours and lines brings to my work’s attention. I am working with a selected palate in which colours benefit from one another. I hope I can inspire some people to note something new around themselves. The most important and most meaningful to my work is the process itself. My next step is to look into a relationship between myself and the process of painting.